Spring cleaning of your drawers of unfulfilled dreams

There is this ritual I do every Spring and Fall: the bi-annual change over of clothes from winter woollies to summer cottons and vice versa. It is a BIG job. A job that I hate. I spend weeks stressing about it before I finally grit my teeth and just do it.

I don't know why I make such a big fuss about this job. Like many things in life, the mental picture I have of the job while I listen to the nasty little voice in my head that "awfulizes" everything is much worse than it actually is.

Have you ever noticed that often the worse part of something is actually just getting started? The author would say that the worse part of writing is staring at the white page. The marathon runner would say that the worse part of running his Sunday morning 20 km training run is actually getting out the door in his running gear and start moving.

Lao Tzu said "The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." How many of us have journeys buried in our soul that we have never started? Maybe they are big journeys like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or smaller journeys like finally taking that ballroom dance class?

What stops us? Any of these reasons sound familiar?:
I'm too old
I'm too young
I don't have the money
I don't have time
It is just a silly dream...

Have you ever read about those folks who boldly decide one day to leave their high paying job in the corporate world to sail around the world and thought wistfully, "Oh how I wish I could do that!" Well I did.

A few years ago I read a book entitled "Live What You Love - notes from an unusual life" by Bob and Melinda Blanchard. The authors'son was born premature with a serious heart defect. It was touch and go for a few weeks. The medical staff kept preparing the Blanchards for their son's death but he proved them all wrong. He survived. He grew up. This crisis was the starting point of the authors' journey.

"And that was it. We weren't about to take a single moment of this life for granted. We knew what love could do, and we were going to live smack in the middle of it." (p. 31)

So they left their traditional jobs, turned their lives upside down and inside out to pursue their dreams. Among other things they opened up a popular restaurant on the tiny island of Antigua in the Caribbean. Their book, Live what you love, is a story about the highs and lows of willing dreams into existence.

My challenge to you this week is to ponder these questions:

What am I passionate about?
How would my heart have me live my life?
What are my reasons not to act on my dreams?
What is one small thing I could do that would take me one step closer to realizing my most cherished dream within the next three months?

Reference: Live What you Love - notes from an unusual life by Bob and Melinda Blanchard ISBN# 1-4027-2842-5