Building Blocks.

“Build a dream and the dream will build you.”
~Robert H. Schuller

Okay, so we’ve established that I’m a quote fanatic. We’ve established that when you take into account all the books, all the Word documents, all the wall hangings and plaques, I probably have a collection of hundreds of those all-important snippets of inspiration. So how in the world is it that I’ve never heard this particular one until now? I’m not sure, but I’m glad I came across it and already consider it among my favorites.

We all have our dreams. No matter what they are, no matter how they were born or where we want them to take us, we all have those wishes for the future and the aspirations of what they could turn into if we put our all into making them reality. But see, here’s the thing. What this publication journey has taught me (well, one of many things) is that the dream we have at the beginning? It doesn’t always stay the same. It bends, it twists, it evolves. We might begin with a dream to build, but it’s the dream that ends up building us in ways we never could have imagined. And that got me thinking. Do our dreams define us? Or do we define our dreams? Say you want nothing more than to be an artist who has the opportunity to exhibit your pieces in a gallery. Say you want nothing more than to be a performer who has the opportunity to write the music you love and then record it in a studio. Or, in my case, say you want nothing more than to be an author who has the opportunity to share your words via published novels. Are we defined only by those dreams, holding on to them and working to make them come true? Or do they take on a life of their own, building us as we continue to build them?

I genuinely believe it’s the latter. Three years ago, if you’d have told me that I’d be focusing on getting my novels into print, working every day to build that dream into a reality, I probably would have looked at you as though you’d just said the world is flat – not because I wouldn’t have loved that aspiration, but because I hadn’t yet considered the foundation for it. When I first got back into creative writing, I never imagined where it would take me. I never imagined it would take on a life of its own, never imagined it would become the kind of passion where I can write every day and somehow love it more and more each time. This publication dream of mine began as a little seed planted in my mind – at the urging of someone who had far more faith in me than I did in myself, for which I will be forever grateful – and has since grown and blossomed into something I can honestly say I will not stop pursuing until it comes true. And that dream? It’s changed over time. I’ve built it. And you know what? It’s built me right along with it. I’m not the same person I was at the beginning of this journey. I’ve learned things about myself I didn’t even know were there, changed in ways I’m so grateful for. I haven’t just grown as a writer, but as a person. I’m stronger now, but at the same time, I’ve also learned that it’s okay to ‘go with the flow.’ I know that there are things beyond my control, so I focus on working as hard as possible on the things I can do. The foundation of my dream is still there, but I build on it every day.

What about you? Have you ever built a dream that in turn ended up building you? Have you ever had a goal that’s changed you in ways you never would have imagined? Do you have those things now?

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