January 21

Quote of the Day

Hold fast to your dreams,

for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

Langston Hughes

I am a dreamer.

To the extent where sometimes I refuse to concentrate on reality and just keep dreaming of what can be and what will be and what I'll make happen. For these dreams I luckily have my best friend, on whom I can always rely for being my dreaming companion. We have amazing plans for our future together as old cafe/flowershop/designstore/bookstore owners. Amazing.

However, my 2012 resolution, if you can call it that, is to consciously pay attention to my current life and to everything that makes it amazing. This doesn't make the above dreams desolate, just shift priorities. A few times I've stopped on my hurried way to the subway to head back home after the hundredth long day and just stood still. Stood still and looked at the view across Columbus Circle, the City lights, the Park beyond, and the people. And instantly my day was better. In those two seconds that I took the time to look at what I had right then and there, instead of rushing to my plans for the night, for the food I was going to eat before turning to the rest of the day's chores, for the places where my stress-producing masters degree was going to get me (one day), I found the solace that I so often long for in the midst of crazy busy days, weeks, and months, that just blend into that one long rat race that everyone talks of.

But going back to the quote - I think I got a little sidetracked - "Hold fast to your dreams, for without them" ...what would be the point? These dreams could mean anything from completing a marathon or learning to love yourself to having a family or a job that satisfies you. For me, though, the key dreams have been educating myself in my long-ago-chosen field of crime studies and traveling. The red thread weaving through life has been education, toward which and for which I've worked...and worked...and worked. With the dream career and knowledge keeping me on my path and keeping me sane. Traveling, on the other hand is the short term cure for life getting mundane, tough or meaningless. It's a dream that works through smaller goals. It's a break I can take amidst school.

Whatever these dreams may be, they are what make us. We dream of different things as an expression of ourselves, as a way to look forward, to challenge ourselves, and believe in our abilities to reach higher, wider, or to a completely new direction.

At their best, dreams allow our lives to soar above plains, mountains, and seas, but even birds need a land to take off from, and this is what living in current day reality provides for our dreams.