“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can reach up and see the beauty,
believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”
~ Louisa May Alcott

Reality has its limitations; the world of your imagination doesn’t. And precisely because it’s boundless comes the seedlings of a reality that longs to get out.

For Wilbur and Orville Wright, bringing their dream to fruition couldn’t have been easy. Yet, they showed us how a desire to search the unknown using ordinary ‘practical’ intelligence could get us to a good place.

Are you holding on to your dreams– your something? Nourishing it with good habits? Let’s dive in and talk about dreams today.

The black and white equation

The world of reality is colored in layers of black and white. It is so for us today as it was for Wilbur and Orville Wright, who saw one phase of their dream come to life after their 1902 glider success. The brothers didn’t stop with the glider, though; they held on to their ‘something’ until they had successfully made their four brief flights with their first powered aircraft. And so, consumed with passion and leaping through massive hurdles, invented the first successful airplane.

You know the story. It couldn’t have been easy.

These brothers did not have the ‘proper’ education, the skills, or the credibility to be ‘recognized’ as genius inventors. What these two guys had, though, was a couple of friends willing to help.

“That’s what friends are for.” – Title of song written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager.

But the Wright brothers and their friends were ridiculed, and despite that, they found a way to convince people who had the proper education, skills, and credentials. Furthermore, their process and ultimate success were fruitful not because of their ‘learned’ knowledge but because their desire to search the unknown using some ordinary ‘practical’ intelligence helps when such a dream just doesn’t go away.

That’s when the color equation changes: Black, white, and hazy– with hazy being the color of dreams.

However small or absurd they may seem to others, there’s nothing more beautiful than a person with dreams. What are yours? And are your habits defining your dreams? It’s up to you to find a way to balance between your dreams and habits.

How? By making a conscientious shift in the energy that you’re feeding your dreams.
Like everything, the energy, the meaning you give them, nourishes them.

You get what you think about, whether you want it or not. – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.

See, thoughts are mental energy. Mental energy is like a currency, the means with which you buy what you desire. And dreams – they arise from the thoughts in your head. Simple as that!

So doesn’t it make sense to give your dreams a valued place in your life?
And isn’t right now the right time to allow your dreams to soak in the right amount of energy? Yes, it is because right now is all we got.

Start by believing in your dreams. Believing is Seeing. It doesn’t happen instantaneously every time, but it does, and once the shift initiates, you’ve begun the balancing adjustment.

My ‘something.’

I’ve had a persistent dream of my own. One that lacked the ‘proper’ education, skills, and credibility to be ‘recognized’ as a Writer of books. This lack had held me back for years. But like the Wright brothers, I turned to my treasure cove of ‘friends’ to help me make my dreams align. I say, like the Wright brothers, but in reality, it’s a little different in that my real and true friends are not on board with me here. These ‘friends’ I talk about today are new friends whose friendship I’ve been blessed with thanks to the internet’s timely invention. My lovely internet friends.

My dream has been to learn to write well and to one day become a decent enough pen-holder who strings ordinary words together. But I do not wish to stop there. I’ve always wanted to share my stories for others to enjoy.

Allow me a short detour.

Let me tell you something that happened to me in my writer’s group where I’m actively practicing the trade. In this group, we have new members join us all the time. Now some of the people who’ve been there with me for a while have gotten used to the vocabulary bracket in which I write. But one new lady commented that the words I used in my writing were way below her level.

“Too childish, immature,” she told me.

That was an excellent observation on her part. But then she added that she had no intention of looking me up again because she did not want to read my grade-six stories.

Should I be offended, do you think? I was, but it was an eye-opener. I write women’s fiction and, no offense to my real friends, but my real friends, who are not avid readers, are the avatar I’ve chosen for my stories.

***

I sent out my first glider

Despite the humiliation, this dream of mine found an outlet. And though the time I dedicated was much shorter than it was for the Wright brothers, I’ve been hard at work toiling away to get some things right. Well, light drifted into my dark tunnel, and I got some things right. But I learned even more, mainly that I need to read more books of different genres, improve my formatting skills, and more.
I will, and I am.

Cloaked in the knowledge of what I need to do to improve, I sent out my first glider into the world– my first short story is on Amazon. Yay! Wanted: Husband, Handyman. Yes, I did, and while I’m proud of my achievement, I find that I’ve also become shy promoting it. So, from that, you can see that publishing is not the end of a dream. I still have hurdles to address and overcome.

***

I’m still working diligently with my group and trying even harder to hone the craft my soul cannot shed. For sure, I will not let this dream fizzle out and die, so I’m allowing myself a few more years of practice, a few more gliders to send out, more light to filter through.

To a lesser extent, like the Wright brothers and their friends, I’ve been ridiculed. But I’m not going to let mean words sway me. Right now, I might write at a grade six level, but grade six is still good for me. I’ll need to overcome hurdles that linger and improve my skills as these are a big part of something much bigger than me. And as best as I can, I will continue to keep the flame alive.

The takeaway: Who am I to think that I’ll conquer my dream at the get-go? It will not happen. Writing is hard. If it wasn’t, anyone could do it. Right. Is your dream different than mine? Is it similar? How far into your journey are you now? Let me know if there’s something I can do to help you along. And foremost, remember that no dream is too small, so keep yours alive. Here’s looking at you.

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

THANKS FOR READING
I Wish You Miracles.