Oh, to Dream Again

Martin Luther King had a dream that all men would dwell together as equals.
John F. Kennedy dreamed that man would one day explore the moon and beyond.
Bill Gates had a dream of blanketing the earth with his software.
Henry Ford dreamed of encircling the globe with his automobiles.
My dream is to offer hope, encouragement and inspiration one word at a time to over ten-million people.

Everyone, at one time or another has had a dream in some form or fashion. But what became of those dreams? What about your dreams? Are they still beating vibrantly in your heart? Or are they now a faint memory of a once-held dream that died for lack of perseverance or a plan?

The loss of a dream is a great tragedy. Norman Cousins once said, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.”

Most elderly people, when asked what they would do if they could live their life over, responded, “I would have taken more chances.”

They are saying they dreamed, they envisioned, and they saw what might be possible, but they stopped short of the realization of those dreams and their dream died somewhere along the way. They failed to act on their vision of what could have been.

I have always been a dreamer, but I’ve not always known what to do with my dreams. Maybe a better way of saying this is that I never took the time to completely flesh them out and give them feet and wings. Can you relate?

Can I walk along with you for a bit and offer you some words of encouragement? Would you like to try one more time to renew your dream, whatever it is or was? There is still time. There’s always time as long as breath flows through your lungs.

I know a lady who longed for a college degree, yet chose to put raising a family first and foremost. Finally, in 2006, she decided that it was her time to pursue this dream and she went for it with passion.

And now, four years later and she is graduating from the University of Washington with her successfully completed degree in Sociology. It hasn’t been easy for her. She struggled with college algebra and had to do a re-do or two, and she wrote endless research papers on a multitude of topics, and then there was that class on French movies and whatever the objective of that class was. But she persevered.

She stayed up until 1:30 many nights writing, reading, studying and memorizing, and she arose at 6:00 A.M. more times than is reasonable so that she could study some more. And now on Saturday, June 12, she is graduating from the University of Washington and I am so proud of her, for she is my wife, Carolyn. She made it!!!

See what a little perseverance will bring about in one’s life?

It all starts with a dream, mixed with desire, a touch of schedule-adjustment and several bags of determination.

Can you pick up your dreams, dust them off, and start again? I believe you can. Just remember to surround yourself with some dream-boosters and avoid the dream busters.

Seek the challenge.
Go forward toward your destiny. It awaits you with open arms.
Dream the impossible dream.