As children everyone is encouraged to dream. The dreams change as the garments of childhood are exchanged for the clothes of adulthood. The childhood dreams of being superheroes, firemen and women, presidents, nurses and CEOs of toy companies dissolve into the more functional and realistic dreams of what our families will be like, who we will marry, and all the places we want to visit but most likely never will.
No one tells us that those childhood dreams are the very lifeblood that gives our lies passion and purpose. And because we do not have this vital information, we as people die long before our bodies catch up and follow suit.
Don Quixote sings of the “Impossible Dream” in the musical The Man of La Mancha, and in the song the passion he has to make a difference is electrifying and palpable—yet, day in and day out, we lay our dreams into the mass grave of hopelessness and despair. We lay them there because well-meaning people like our teachers, parents, mentors, and clergy tell us that we have to grow up and be practical. Little do they realize that their version of practicality is a form of suicide.
Imagine being given these two options before being born:
A – Upon being born, you will grow into a young person who is alive and on fire with passion and inspiration, and everything you do is made more colorful, more vibrant, more meaningful because of your contribution to it. You are a walking, talking demonstration of what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
B – Upon being born you will start off with a dream, but it will quickly be surrendered so you have the mental energy to wake up each day, spend the majority of your day doing a job you feel you have to do rather than one you want to do, and this job will last about 60 years, after which you will retire with the hopes of enjoying your life now, but you will sink into despair for having put off living, and then in you will lie down in the grave, where you surrendered your once-upon-a-time-dreams of making a difference, of being happy, of being you.
The interesting thing is that in life we are afforded new opportunities to breathe life back into our dreams—to resuscitate them—and we still choose B over A because we have to be practical; practical people don’t dream, they set goals.
If we gave way to the dreams and let them take shape and align with our passions and purpose—our reason for being—the impossible becomes possible.
There are countless people whose lives bear witness to what happens when we give ourselves permission to dream. Look at what people like George Lucas, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey have created and made possible by allowing their dreams to influence reality.
What if our dreams are the very substance upon which a life well lived is formed? Can we afford not to dream?
Some men see things as they are and say, ‘why?’; I dream things that never were and say, ‘why not?’
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Rev. Dr. Raymont Anderson, is an ordained New Thought minister, an ordained Interfaith / Interspiritual minister, a licensed Religious Science Minister and is the current Senior Minister of The Center for Spiritual Living Greater Baltimore. He is a professional teacher, workshop & seminar facilitator, Certified Holistic Life Coach, Reiki master teacher, spiritual counselor, visual artist, actor, performer, author of Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language and Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation. He is the father of five amazing young men and the grandfather of five beautiful grandkids, and this is just scratching the surface. For more information go to www.raymontanderson.com
