Dream On, Dream Until Your Dreams Come True
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb“Comfortably Numb,” song by Pink Floyd
Remember your childhood dream?
Did you want to be a firefighter, an astronaut, or a superhero?
As you became older, wiser, and more cynical, you left those unrealistic fantasies behind.
But those childish fancies grew out of an important, grown-up impulse.
You wanted to change the world, to make it a better place.
However, those dreams seem unrealistic now — even childish.
You’ve become a sensible adult. With adult obligations.
There’s no time or energy for whimsical dreams.
But your early occupational plans aren’t the only casualty of the passing years.
There was a time when you did things without any thought of how they would impact your career — or your retirement. You did them for their own sake. Because they were fun, or interesting, or challenging.
If you think about those kinds of activities at all, you relegate them to another fanciful time known as retirement.
Retirement, a time when you will not be burdened with a job, with obligations, or with a schedule.
All your sacrifices will become worthwhile.
Yet the golden years seem surprisingly like the working years.
You still have obligations. You still have a schedule. You may even still have a job.
The details have changed, but life still gets in the way of the dreams.
Is it really life that gets in the way, or is it busyness?
We tell ourselves that we are too busy to invest in our fitness.
Yet if we did a time audit we would be surprised how much time we waste on “entertainment.”
Why does it feel that entertainment is necessary?
It’s because we have lost touch with our dreams.
We’ve become comfortably numb, and entertainment is our anesthesia.
Why do we feel the need to medicate?
Could it be that we are overwhelmed by all the things we must do and should do?
Could it be that we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t have time today to invest in our dreams?
Could it be that we no longer know what we want to be when we grow up?
It is not irresponsible to be a dreamer.
It is irresponsible to starve our dreams.
When our dreams die, we die.
Let’s take some time today to dream about who we want to be, what we want to do, how we want to make a difference in this world.
Now available at Amazon: The Courageous Heart: Wisdom for Difficult Times in paperback and eBook.
