I have been almost giddy today. There is something so wonderful about the beginning of a new year…. a new chapter waiting to be written… new trails to blaze… new adventures to be had. It is that same feeling I get when I stroll the office stores and see all the never been used journals and notebooks… I love everything about a new journal… the smell… the crispness of the paper… the fact that NOTHING has yet been written….
I am looking forward to everything it brings… Yes, I am aware, profoundly, that with each new year brings the possibility of new trials, new heartache, new…… BUT, it also brings with it, new opportunity to write my life the way I want it written. To insure that my story plays out, the way I would have wanted it to be. I truly do believe that we have more choice, the what we may have the courage, at times, to exercise.
I don’t understand those who would want me to live life as if it is something that just happened to me… as if we are dealt a hand and there is no way to change it….Yes, I know there are things we cannot change…I will always be a girl… I will always have brown eyes and so on… but, there is so much that we can change…..
I was reminded of a coffee meeting I had with a friend a couple of years ago. This beautiful and talented friend really wanted to change her life. Get out of the rut she found herself in.. take control of her own destiny… All I did that day was to listen to her speak her dreams out loud. Something that few have the courage to do… and with that, her dreams grew wings…
I hate that we teach our youth to bury their dreams… or worst that they are not achievable. I truly believe that there IS A WAY…. it may not look like everyone else’s path… I will guarantee it won’t won’t be going the same direction of the pack.. but, I do believe there is a way. I will guarantee if wont be popular with the pack, and I can guarantee it wont come easily… But, it is true that nothing worthwhile truly does.
I watch my young adult kids struggle with this, and it is heart breaking. If there is one thing that I would wish for is that somehow we, the more experienced ones, would be honest with the youth that in so many ways, we settled. We took the easy way. And, in by doing so, we have demonstrated that dreams are….. unreachable.
It is the proverbial “They” that is to blame. For it was “they” that said it couldn’t be done. It was “they” that said, our dream was to big. It was “they” that said “no one lives their bliss”.
I wonder, who are they to say?
If God breathes a dream inside of you…. inside of me…. who are they to say, it can’t be done? I believe with everything in me that if God has brought me too it… it will help me find my way through it… But, if we are surrounding ourselves with people who are not dream livers.. they will never be able to validate YOUR living of your dream.
So, here I am again, sitting with a new journal… and a New Year full of possibilities. New opportunities to change the un-changeable, to do the un-thinkable, and to live the un-dream-able.
It doesn’t take courage to dream, on some level we all do…. but, it does take courage to live the dream.
So, I hope that you will raise your glasses high… and determine that this year is the year of living the dream, whatever that dream may be.
A Cowgirl Called 