What Are Your Dreams?

"It is not because things are difficult that that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." - Henry David Thoreau in the "Conclusion" Chapter of "Walden 

Any of you who have read the introduction to my website at www.myparentdepot.com know the story of an epiphany I had a few years ago. I had just finished a talk to a group of parents of addicts. This was my first talk to my Al-Anon home group and of course was very prepared.

Ok, it was a completely written speech that I read word for word.

One of the parents walked up to me afterwards and asked me if I was a writer.

"Yes I am," I responded after a very short pause. The pause was so short that I actually surprised myself. The admission took my breath away!

That day in 2012 began a rekindled embrace of my passion for writing. It took an angel I didn't even know at the time and am not sure if I have even seen since that meeting to begin the process for me. I could have ignored the invitation, the terror of possibility that comes with such a gift from the Universe, God, our Great Creator. 

That evening, I chose to NO LONGER ignore possibilities.

I had always written. As a junior high school after my mother moved from Cincinnati to Florida I remember writing to my friends back home to keep in touch. These were not letters, but travelogues of living in Florida, a handwritten "blog" before the Internet was even a glint in Al Gore's eyes.

I wrote all the time. I wrote short stories, poems, "news" articles and even haiku and sonnets.

I attended college on scholarship and when calculus and physics betrayed my dearth of spacial acuity I dropped pre-med as a major and switched to English, taking on as many business courses as possible as a hedge against unemployment.

Soon after graduation I accepted an administrative position in the defense industry as a "Management Trainee."

I took the road most often taken.

And that has made all the difference.

I am not regretful. I have had wonderful experiences in multiple industries. I've learned a lot and met and worked with some remarkable people. But except for a brief stay in public relations where I wrote and edited, and contributed to marketing and PR campaigns I was not passionate about my craft.

"Are you a writer?"

This question has made all the difference - now.

I have rediscovered my passion and allowed myself to reclaim my passion for writing. None of this could have been possible before the gift of recovery was bestowed upon me as a result of my son who brought me to this place.

Crazy? Maybe.

A wonderful epiphany occasioned by acceptance, letting go and getting out of the way of possibilities?

Definitely!

What are your dreams? What do you want to be when you "grow up?"

I work with people in many walks of life and am heartened when the discussions turn briefly from the business at hand to other things. Occasionally I will witness the description of a song, a main character in development, or a kiln they wish to purchase so they can "throw" clay again.

These signs of self awareness make me smile.

So, if you didn't have to work to eat, keep your place of residence, clothe yourself and occasionally do fun things what in the world would you do with yourself?

Would you, like NCIS' Leroy Jethro Gibbs build wooden boats in your basement with painstaking care seemingly only for the love of the process?

Do you have music inside of you? Has anyone told you your photographs capture moments like nothing they've ever seen? Are you one of the gifted who can build or even sculpt things, anything, out of anything?

Do you have great ideas for inventions or innovations, for business or society?

Let your spirit rise to the possibilities!

I am not suggesting you quit your day job, sell the house, move the family to a one-room efficiency in the bleakest of neighborhoods, or even to Alaska.

I am suggesting that you do not have to wait, for the next day, week, month, year … maybe until retirement.

We can all start now, start small, but start living our dreams.

So…

"What's Fun?"

"What ARE your dreams?"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

You may be surprised by what you discover when you put Fun and Dreams back into your life.

"Savor the moments that are warm and special and giggly." - Sammy Davis Jr.

… keep coming back