What do you want?

I was recently asked if your dreams could make you sad?  I thought about it for a moment and then answered that I believe only UNFULFILLED dreams make you sad.

Some of the saddest of these would be when you lose someone or something you love; or worse when you have experienced real love and somehow something goes wrong.  Either you make choices that disrupt it, she/he does... or the universe intervenes.  In most cases we often feel as if we are helpless participants or remorseful beings left to the vengence of God or the world's unforgiveness.

The thing is that in most cases we are not helpless or powerless.  We are not meant to be on the sidelines watching our story unfold in ways that hurt us.  Yes, we are usually given the opportunity to 'learn' from our mistakes.  But wouldn't it be GREAT if we could learn the lesson BEFORE the pain? WITHOUT the hurt?

To that end, I believe we DO have just that opportunity.  We are EMPOWERED to embrace and invoke our dream - our vision for our lives.

So the question is:  What do you want? (Scene from The Notebook)

We / I / You have a choice.  We are always given a choice.  A choice to stand idly by and watch the love of your life drive away... A choice to choose Lon over Noah (see clip above).  A choice to stand against whatever negative circumstance is between us and our dream...

Nothing short of death will keep me from my dream.  I am committed to it.  I believe in it.  I breathe it, see it, stand on it, hope for it, and act -- sometimes even beyond what I dare -- to move toward it.  And I won't give up on it until the deserts flood and the grass turns blue.

Refuse to settle for the person just like you (your Lon).
Refuse to settle for just a job.
Refuse to settle for anything less than who or what you are meant to have...

Because when you do settle, deep down inside a piece of you dies.  The heart-light hope, childlike faith, and twinkle in your eye that brings that SMILE you can't hide feels the weight of that sadness.  You can run from it, stay so busy you try not to notice it... and you can deny it.  It will only surface at odd times - you'll wake up in the middle of the night and realize!  or you're sitting alone in your car when the haze lifts from your mind for just a moment and you FEEL.

It's in those times that you KNOW what you chose... or what you didn't.

More often than not, people believe the lie that the fear is bigger than the LOVE: 
     Fear of hurting others - who they are with now or their families... 
     Fear of being hurt again - why give up the simple life to take a risk?

We all love the movie "The Notebook" because Allie chose LOVE.  She risked what she had for what she dreamed... she refused to settle.  And in the end their story, their love, overcame in this life and transported them to the next.

I believe love really is THAT powerful.  So what do you LOVE? What is your passion?  What is your dream?

Don't let your dreams go unfulfilled - take the risk and defy that sadness from ever entering your world!  CHOOSE.  You are the only one who can.

       THINK.       WRITE.       BELIEVE.       ACT.