Living Your Dreams is Imperative and This is Why
“Limits exist only in your mind.” Aristotle’s famous words emblazoned across a Scholastic Book Club poster hung over my bed when I was growing up. I woke up to his words every morning and fell asleep to them every night. And eventually they became emblazoned in my own mind. I had BIG dreams. I was going to change the world.
And I did. For a while. But all too soon the soul crushing rumbled in like a dark cloud, smothering those “dreams.” Telling me they were impractical. Get real. And then my sister passed away. She was two years older than me and had followed me to Greece. It seems to take a death to shake one awake, doesn’t it? My sister was too young to die and I know there were people who may have thought I had stolen her last years from them, but they weren’t mine to give (or take). She had simply decided to follow her heart. And boy did she do some magnificent things: like sailing 40 foot yachts across the blue seas of the Mediterranean, exploring castles, caves and other ancient ruins, hanging out with people who truly loved her. She led an exciting existence. (There are a few other bloggers out there dealing with deaths of friends and family at this time, so my sympathies go out to them.)
I recently read a quote: “If you are not living, then you are dying.” (Goodreads attributes it to Vince Flynn, author of American Assassin). My sister had chosen to live her life. And for a while, once on the other side of grief, I too chose to live.
But again those dark clouds rumbled eventually overhead.
Having struggled with an illness recently, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want another death to make me wake up and take stock, and am arming myself with a broom to chase away those dark clouds. I see that this is a continual struggle (maybe just for me): Living and pausing. Living and pausing. Or is it living and dying? I don’t know about you, but I don’t wish to die.
It is imperative that you choose to live your dreams.
Why?
- No one else will live them for you.
- If you are waiting for someone’s permission, you get to sign your own life’s permission slip!
- Don’t wait for a vital death in your life to shake you awake.
- Don’t waste your precious life living someone else’s dream.
- Life is a precious treasure and far too short. You may die tomorrow.
- If you wait till you have enough money, stocks, cookies, you may be too ill to do it. And cookies will be dust. (A couple of weeks ago I felt and looked like the walking dead!)
- LIFE IS TOO SHORT!
And now to finish this little, missive with my favorite quote of all. I read William Earnest Henley’s ” Invictus” poem in a high school English class and it has stuck with me ever since.
“It matters not how straight the gait,
Nor charged with punishments the scroll,
For I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.”
Every day is a new beginning.