I have not been able to write for just about 10 days now. Not because I don't want to, not because I don't have things to write about but because I can't. I have the time I have the inspiration but I do not have the ability. I am what you might commonly refer to as blocked. Blocked by frustration, annoyance and fear over the following thought...
Is it possible for a family to support more than one person's dream at a time?
If a dream requires all out effort, time, attention and devotion to be realized, is it possible for you to devote yourself entirely to achieving it. If someone else's dream requires your support, guidance, and help is it possible to give those things away without jeopardizing your own desires?
In a family how do you decide who gets to dream. I am the very first one to say "We all Do... Dreams for EVERYBODY!" but it's just not true is it? I mean we all get to have our dreams but we don't all get to live them do we? It would be a pretty crazy world if we all ended up using all of our minutes striving towards our goals, I for one would be over-joyed to wander in a sea of ridiculously happy people all living "the life" whatever that life might be to them.
As parents we work hard to make this a reality for our kids. If they want to play hockey we do the driving, tie the skates, sit in the stands and cheer. If they want to be artists we buy the paints and pastels, blocks of sketch paper and easels. The child who wants to be fashion forward or a model gets the clothes, the shoes, the attention to make that possible. We do this for our kids without a second thought or an ounce of bitterness because one of our dreams is to see all of there's come true.
Along the way however each of us providers carries our own very personal dreams. Dreams that are big, dreams that would require attention and time and effort, dreams that would require the support and help and guidance of others. Dreams that end up on shelves. Not because we don't want to nurture them but because doing so only halfway is painful, disappointing and emotional.
We have a saying in our home "All in or Nothing" it means for us that at any given time we are giving 120% to the moment and the events there in. Anything less that 'all in' achieves very little. You can't make cookies with half the ingredients, you can't achieve success in school by only doing half of your homework. Laundry that only gets washed might be clean but it's not wearable. To give less than your all produces disappointing results.
This is what prompts us to put things on the shelf to wait for their time.
So the kids get their dreams. Parents make sure of that or they make sure the kids are dreaming dreams that fit in with their own program. That would be the easy way, one main dreamer in the house charting the course for the rest of the family and toting them along for the ride.
I can't do that, I want to see everyone realise a dream born of their own passions. I am the supporter of dreams, that's my job and I love it.
Gratitude today that I can take my own big dreams down from time, that they get to see periods of sunshine. It keeps them fresh for the day when they can have all of my attention. I just wish today that it was easier to put them back on the shelf.
Gratitude, Hope and Smiles are meant to be shared. That would help me achieve my dream if you would pass that thought around.
Michelle
one last thought to share...
If you are the person with the freedom to indulge your big dream with 120% of your effort and does it with the support of great people around you... don't you dare sit back and do nothing with that privilege. Seize it, embrace it, make the very most of it. Chances are that a lot of other people are putting their dreams on simmer to make that possible.
