Dreams and dreaming

It is good to have an end to journey towards but it is the journey that matters in the end. Ursula K. LeGuin

When I was a little girl I dreamt of being many things. Some days, it was an actress. Others a dancer and and yet others, a famous psychologist unlocking secrets of the mind. Always, I wanted to be a writer. When I was a little girl, I dreamt my dreams and hesitated in taking steps towards them.

We can all have an end to a journey in mind. But, if we never take the steps towards our desired end, the journey never unfolds.

Last night my eldest daughter and I chatted about her dream. It is one she has held close to her heart since she was a little girl playing dress-up and coercing her sister into re-enactments of Titanic or some other movie 'du jour'. At eight years old, she had written and rehearsed her Academy Award acceptance speech, the delivery itself worthy of an Academy Award. At twelve she had a lead in her school play and at sixteen, the only performance I've missed, she wrote and directed her own piece to critical acclaim at her High School.

It is a dream she keeps stepping towards -- no matter how tentative, or cautious, her steps.

And in her journey, she continues to inspire me with her commitment to experiencing each step of her journey, in all its joy, sadness, confusion and inspiration.

It's the thing about dreamers. They can't help but inspire those of us who hesitate on the sidelines of our dreaming to take the steps we must to awaken our own journey of fulfillment. The world would be a lesser place without its dreamers. They are the spark of creativity, the fire of imagination that ignites the wonder of our lives.

My youngest daughter is also a dreamer. And a journeyer. While her dream has never been quite as clear as her sisters, she has always had great imaginings of what she could do in her life. At one time she thought she'd be an alien, or at least an astronaut, and then became grounded in the realization that gravity was an integral part of life on earth. Since entering college three years ago, she has realized her strengths lie in other fields of endeavour than outer space. Studying abroad has always been a dream of hers and in January, she is off to Holland for a semester. She's worked hard to make this dream come true. Saved up her money. Applied for scholarships and ensured her GPA is in excellent standing. And along the way, she's enjoyed her journey, learning and growing and pushing herself to achieve academically in ways she's never before imagined.

I've got dreams. Dreams I've held close to my heart and never realized. Time to let my daughters inspire me into action. Into joining the journey of fulfillment that comes when I initiate action that awakens my heart to the joy of experiencing each step of the journey.

Time to engage in the journey of what matters most in my dreaming.

The question is: Are you secretly dreaming of moving towards the end of your journey, and missing out on experiencing the journey every day?