Ann

Priceless beauty

Possibility can be a frightening thing because it is so vast. There are so many choices available to you, it’s difficult work figuring out which ones to follow.

One of the most important things you will ever do is to understand exactly what you wish to do. It may seem intimidating, and yet it can be easy when you simply let yourself be you.

Don’t be afraid or ashamed of what you truly desire. That desire is a window into the valuable and unique purpose that is at the heart of you.

A mere machine is able to follow instructions, and can do so very well. Your job is to follow your heart, and that’s a much more important job.

You are a living expression of truth. There are gifts you have to give that cannot ever come from anywhere else.

Feel those urges that come from the heart of you, and give them life. Create the priceless beauty that is yours alone, right now, to create.

— Ralph Marston

Ann

I usually post a reading and them comment on how it applies to my life, but I am also going to throw out a challenge to each of you...including YOU, Vale

All my life I have loved to write. I did well in school with my compositions, I have entered a few small contests and won...yet I never considered the possibility that I might be able to do more..the possibility of writing something important or entertaining or just something that would take this beyond the "small stuff" it has always been.

So...I AM writing. I am doing a little for a local newspaper and working on a family history by sharing the stories that were passed to me by my grandmother and great aunt and wise women who shared with me as I grew up. And I am writing something for a contest...it doesn't matter if I win or not, I am doing it to learn how to follow directions, requirements and word limitation and come out with a good story when I am done. I am doing it because it has always been something I wanted to do.

Better late than never, I'm no spring chicken but my dreams are still alive and well.

Possibilities will now become a certainty, for me. I AM writing...there is no "fail".

Here's the challenge...

What have you always wanted to that you could now do if you set your mind to it? What dream have you had that you could make come true just believing in the possibility that you CAN?

I'd love to know and hope you'll share.

Hugs

smc92va

At 28, I finished my Master's in Education. While I enjoyed teaching and being an assistant principal my heart was never fully in it. When I was 34 and my divorce was finalized- I decided it was time for a change. Since I was a child, I dreamed about working in film. That summer I replied to a local advertisement asking for photo doubles for a film that was shooting where I live. I ended up landing the gig and was Emily Blunt's photo double on an Independent film called Arthur Newman. As 40 quickly approaches- I am still working in film. I am now an Assistant Production Coordinator. I feel very blessed to be able to wake up and go to a job I completely love.

Ann- if you want to write- do it! Your post and words to me here on SR have bought both comfort and happiness to my heart. You have a gift for that. It is never to late to follow your soul's passion😊

Ann

SMC, I think it is wonderful that you have been able to follow your dreams and fulfil them. All it took was for you to make up your mind and take the first step.

I have met a couple of successful authors and asked them how to begin and each time the answer was the same...just write and fix it when you are done. Those words inspired me then and they continue to inspire me today.

For you, just showing up and willingness.. and a lot of talent, I am sure, was the beginning. Well done.

Hugs

Vale

I usually post a reading and them comment on how it applies to my life, but I am also going to throw out a challenge to each of you...including YOU, Vale
================================================== =====

uh-oh! Called out..........again! :0 !!!!!!!!!!!

(Do I REALLY have to go find a bucket of damned ice water, and video it
being dumped on my head?)

Vale already climbed his summit. He got to live the life he dreamed---
doing the thing he loves best. It would not be in the interest of anonymity
to reveal what it was.......but that's not really the point, is it?

The point is to hold out our hand to others.....to tell them there IS a way
out of EVERY nightmare (including addiction). Way back in the 70's, everyone
told me MY dream was unattainable....'you can't get there from here'.

Ducks can be stubborn......and they HAVE to be crap listeners.....---BIG,BIG DUCKBILL
for yapping (or posting!)...but itty/bitty ears.Think about it. Have YOU ever seen ears on a duck?

The lesson here is don't listen to those who say you cannot do the things you WANT
to do. They are merely trying to bring YOU down to make THEMSELVES feel better.

Come to think of it.....being a duck DOESN'T suck! No big ears to listen to naysayers,
webbed feet to avoid being mired in bullcrap----and wings to fly in whatever direction
their heart will take them!

Oh,crap!......here comes that lady with the duct tape again! My excessive quacking
seems to have a direct correlation to my getting taped to a wall around here. I'm not
confusing correlation with causation-----I'm just saying that damned tape takes about a
half pound of MY feathers with it when it comes off!

And on the serious side....Ann, you are a GREAT writer. Your words have warmed my
heart more times than I have individual feathers.

(INCLUDING all the ones stuck to the duct tape!)

Thank you for that, my friend.

Ann

Vale, your words make so much sense too and I am so glad you didn't listen and got to live out your dreams...and hope you continue to do so.

I grew up in a city where oil was the big industry and every business was either oil itself or those who supplied to the oil companies. When we moved to Toronto and I got a job with accountants there in a big office building. I remember walking down the hall to the accounting company offices the first day and stopped in my tracks when I saw the sign on another business's door that read "Ripley's Believe it or Not". It was their Toronto office and I recall thinking "There is a whole world out here that has nothing to do with OIL." It gave me a lift...the kind you get when you realize that anything is possible...believe it or not.

Vale, you inspire me, all those who went forward anyway when everyone scoffed and waited for failure. There IS no failure, there is only failing to try.

My mama had a plate on her kitchen wall that read "You've Got To Have A Dream Before It Can Come True". That's the thing, dreams CAN come true if we are willing to take the leap of faith and just do it.

Hugs

Twofish

Hey Vale...I've got your back, if I'm ever walking past a wall and notice you're ducked taped to it...I'll free you, I'll release those sticky chains around you with my bare hands. That is how highly I think of you, and if I cannot free you, I'll go over to Ann's home and together we will figure out a way to set you free (that is if it wasn't Ann who put you up there to begin with.)!!! I believe it's called trust.
Ann, great thread you've started again and BTW, I've always found your writings very uplifting and caring, I assumed you "are a writer or journalist", you've got that ability/talent/gift to support with words when we need it and at the perfect time. And a big thank you for that!
To your original question...Hummm, first I would love to figure out the cure for this obsessive "what iffing and worrying I do" then, I would like to return to school to become a counselor/social worker. I'm a good listener(now) and enjoy hearing about other people's dreams and help them get over those mountains and hills that get in their way. Yep, that's what I'd do if I could do it over again. I'd follow my dreams.
TF

Lovenjoy

great challenge Ann! i've been thinking on this. i came up with 3 things immediately and then got depressed and couldn't write about them because need to make money ya know? then i took pleasure in knowing i still have dreams and i ain't dead yet!!! so...

writing: i have been writing poems and short stories since i was very young. i am a voracious reader. i write alllll the time. would love to immerse myself and write a fantasy novel. i love magic, and history, and people and have found a real love in fantasy as it is such a platform for philosophy.

art: in college i took some art courses and my field uses creative communication. i would love to use paint, pastels, inks to put my feelings out there.

piano: i have always wanted to play the piano!

this really struck a chord with me vale! i was told often in my pursuits "you can't succeed". i have mostly worked in a male dominated field all my adult life because of my passion for the work. and i just got stubborn when this attitude would be thrown at me! as my career evolved i went to school to get to another level and again was told "you'll never make it". older, disabled, single parent, how can you possibly succeed. but i have. i have a very rewarding career, really love my job!

so even though i don't have leisure to pursue my creative dreams, at this time, i do have a wonderful career that brings home the bacon! you're right vale, we can't listen when someone says your dreams are unattainable. i found the person saying that today about the dreams i listed was me.

Ann

We are our own worst critics, I think. Lovenjoy, I also was too busy working (I am an accountant since Twofish asked) to have time to write and do things I love. I hope you try them all. Playing the piano would be wonderful and something that you could do while you are working too, yes? Lessons are not too hard to find and away you go.

I have been working on something over the past few months and after posting this yesterday, I went to read it again...through the eyes of a critic. I think it's quite good, better than okay if I may say so myself and not sabotage my efforts before I even try to go further. I need an ending, a wrap up, the story has mostly been told but needs a finish... and I am working on that this weekend and then will prepare to submit it to a Canadian Writers contest that happens each year. Win, lose or draw, I will be pleased that I just "did it" and let the chips fall where they may.

Anyone else? What are your dreams and how could you pursue them if you found the courage to try?

WhoIsHe

"Anyone else? What are your dreams and how could you pursue them if you found the courage to try?"

My dream: to start a meditation/spiritual community here. Two years ago, I moved "back home", leaving behind my beautiful spiritual/meditation community. It was the most important thing to me for 10 yrs. Starting a new group would not be really hard. Being part of my beloved community was as easy as breathing, i facilitated many times, and I was on the steering committee. However, I have been in a slump since being back. The last 1+year I spent with my addicted ex-mate was an oasis, altho it has turned into another hellish journey when I discovered how duped I was by my mate! How what I knew of him from my childhood and beyond had been lost in addiction. What a fool i was! So now I pick myself up and incorporate the experience into the process of forming a new group. This is my dream.

Ann

Wonderful dream and I sense your "need" to fulfill it. It brings to mind the saying "If you build it, they will come." Begin, that's the hardest part, just begin and it will happen.

Thank you for the inspiration you bring with your dream...you CAN do it and I'd love to hear from you how it goes.

Hugs

Vale

==============================================
You weren't a fool. I wasn't a fool. We believed in people and it didn't
turn out. The fool tells themselves never to believe in anyone----that EVERYONE
will let you down, fall short, and injure you in doing so.

It isn't true. And they are TRULY fools for believing it. Because by
lumping "everyone" together, they lose the ability to discern the wheat from
the chaff......thereby guaranteeing their future failure.

Start your spiritual community again. The hardest thing in life to do is
to believe again. I went through a hellish codependency period....and I'm still
recovering (as evidenced by my nearly 1800 disjointed posts here!).

SO F%^KING WHAT!! I still believe in people. If I see these deadly
patterns again----I'll be a little quicker on the abort handle, that's all.

Form a new group. Bring your life experience to it. The odometer is
ticking and there is precious little of this wonderful thing called life to
waste.

WhoIsHe

Ann and Vale -- thanks so much for your wisdom and encouragement. And yes, I do think it is a matter of "if you build it, they will come. I was happy to discover that there's a new meditation gp in a similar format here, and I'm hoping to springboard off that. It's totally doable. I just have to have the confidence or stability or whatever to begin. Tomorrow I'm going to meditate with this gp I mentioned. It's a start.

Vale, I agree that trusting someone is not being a fool. I opened up my heart and that's a good thing, if not a smart thing is this case. I battle against feeling like a fool though, because it seems that there were people who knew exactly what was going on but didn't bother to let me in on it. My ex-pal's brother, who I also grew up with, knew about the long-time crack addiction and about the crack-addicted woman that my ex had living with him. Others knew too. Not picking up on the crack addiction I don't fault myself over too much because it was pretty easy to chalk up what I did see to his Parkinson's disease. But the fact that there was a woman living with him - THAT I feel like a fool over, not to mention the diseases that I have been exposed to by not knowing. I am working on not holding a grudge against his brother and the others who knew tho. I don't need that on top of everything else. Sometimes I'm just too damn nice though! Seemingly -

Off track...

What about other folks' dreams?