Dreams...

Wow...three posts into it and I'm already going to go philosophical, but hey, its what I'm feeling right now. I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep, and I picked up a daily meditation book called "Jesus 2000" by Mark Link, S.J. (have to make sure I give credit where credit is due). Now, I'm not very good at keeping up with it, so I'm a week or two behind, but I started reading a few of the daily thoughts. They all make you think of different things, but then I came across one that just made me think and ponder and want to share. It reads:

Jesus said "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it...becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches." Mathew 13:31-32 In 1990, Secretary of State James Baker convened the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Madrid, saying, "The road to peace is very long and it is very difficult. We have to crawl before we can walk and we have to walk before we run, and today I think we all began to crawl." What Baker said about the road to peace can be said about so many things in life: success, holiness, happiness. The road to them is long and difficult. And the first step is always a "crawl." But if we begin and persevere, this mustard-seed beginning will someday grow into a great tree. At what stage am I on the road to my dream: crawling, walking, or running? The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt.

On the path of life, it seems so easy to get lost with everyday things and to forget about our dreams, our aspirations, our desires. We get so focused on what we are doing today, that we lost sight of where we want to go. We get too afraid of such a long journey that we never even begin the trip. It seems all too often we convince ourselves of failure, and therefore force ourselves to fail before even beginning by never taking the chance. This thought reminds me of "The Man in the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt (and more recently of a quote about "getting in the car" in the new Transformers movie). But like the familiar idiom, you can't win the lottery if you never play, one will never succeed if one never tries. But on a more personal level it makes me think about my friends and acquaintances that I talk to that seem to do the same things. Even I have kept myself from doing things because I was afraid because the outcome was unknown. So I guess I want to challenge everyone who reads this to look inside yourself, figure out where your dreams lie, and maybe even just figure out what your dreams are. Take that knowledge and start crawling. Crawling towards that dream of yours and make sure you don't stop until you get there. Doesn't matter if your 15 or 50 (or older like my parents...love you!) we all need to have dreams, have a direction, and be willing to begin our travels in that direction. We will probably get sidetracked, and I know we'll learn a lot, but don't forget your dreams. Good Luck.