Motivational Monday: Dare To Dream

"Dare to dream, take it to the extreme. Let your heart and soul lead the way. Live, love seize the day and dare to dream, dare to dream, dare to dream." John Farnham

It is graduation season here in Jamaica and a very uplifting time of validation, dreams becoming realities and opportunity to measure achievements - some against all odds.  

Always moved by these inspirational stories, the journeys of some of the young ones have one common factor it seem - they all had big dreams.

Some people consider "dreaming" childish and a luxury. Too bad more people do not dreams like children as dreaming is not a luxury, affordable only to children, the wealthy and 'time wasters'. 

In my primary school years, at least once a year we were asked to write a composition on "What I want to be when I grow up." Thinking about it now that, I seldom wrote about the same vocation twice.  Why? Dreams change.  Other students in my year were a bit more consistent than I was.  Many of them who wanted to be Teachers, Police Officers, Farmers, Nurses and Pastors when they grew up, are today living their dreams. 

Our choices were greatly influenced by our environment.  My family had its share of Educators: Principals, Lecturers, Education Officers, etc.  When I graduated from high school, to appease my mother, I took the entrance examination for Teachers' College. My mother insisted that teaching is a noble and stable profession one that guarantees constant employment. That profession, however, was not on my DREAM list. 

Albeit it blurred, my dream was bigger. Today I teach through my living. An Educator nonetheless but my dream was to do something out of the ordinary, divert from the usual road; break a couple of 'glass ceilings.'

"Dream BIG! Don't let money or lack of it limit the size of your dream."

That is exactly what one of my role models, my brother, did the same year our late mother was diagnosed with cancer.  Oscar was just accepted into Medical School at the University of the West Indies when news of the diagnosis came. We all thought that his dream was shattered, including the local pastor's wife whose 'words of wisdom' would be exactly the challenge he needed. "Well Oscar," she said, "I guess you have to kiss your dream goodbye and go get a job to look after your sick mother." 

My mother, the faithful prayer warrior, was very upset when she heard this prophecy. She came back with one of her own: "Fi yuh DREAM is fi yuh only. Nobody can dream your DREAM! Go in God's name." At the time, I did not quite understand the wisdom of my mom's words until my brother left home with a bag full of faith, a heart set on achieving and the hope that some day he would make a difference. Oscar's DREAM did come through and continues to expand as one of his three children enrolled into Medical School last year.

"Don't try to stop me. Don't tell me I'm crazy. You are only wasting your breath. I am bound and determined to make it happen. It's just a matter of when." John Farnham

Dreams are not passing fantasies. They are real aspirations.  I have heard the saying "I am living dream," giving the impression that dreams are static.  Life is not and cannot remain static. Dreaming aids the "movement," the enlargement of your life. Any aspect of your life that is "holding pace," degenerating or plain dead is signal to you that complacency, mediocrity or nonchalant attitude is killing your dreaming.

Clara's Dreamer

Be childlike, waste some time and luxuriate in some dreams today! Oscar did, I followed and I am supporting my son's daily dreaming.  You can too - in your life and that of your child or the community's children!

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Clara Brown is an Insurance Executive and regular Guest Author to this blog. She lives in Kingston, Jamaica with her partner and their son who is constantly dreaming

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