reach for your dream

7/28/2019 Reach for Your Dream

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Reach for Your Dreamby David D. Moore

Have you ever dreamed of sailing around the world — alone? Or, haveyou dreamed of running for high political office, writing a best sellingnovel, snow-mobiling to the North Pole, finding a cure for cancer, buildingyour own A- frame in the woods, or even of climbing Mt. Everest, winning aGrand Prix road race, or being awarded a Nobel Prize? If you have ever dreamed or aspired to accomplish any of these difficult tasks, or any of athousand others the human mind can dream — then, you are alive. You area feeling, thinking human being, an individual who is spiritually, emotionallyand physically alive, for dreams are the deepest expression of creativepotential within the human spirit. What is a dream? A dream is the creationof an idea which develops within a courageous human mind; and. it is like aseed. If a seed is carefully planted at the appointed time in fertilesoil,-and nurtured with proper amounts of water and sunlight, it will spring to lifeand flower to maturity. So it is with the dreams of men. All men who havesucked the breath of life have carried a dream in their minds and hearts,but most dreams have fallen too early or too late in the season of life or onsterile minds and cold hearts, or most often have through discouragementor fear. A man with a dream is a man with promise. A man in pursuit of adream is a roan who is alive. A man who has achieved a dream is a manwho has experienced life; and, conversely, aman without a dream is a man who is dead. All dreams, however, like everygreat and noble aspiration which has flashed in the human mind, aredifficult to achieve. Pietro Metasio, an 18th century author and dreamer wrote: "Every noble acquisition is attended with its risks; he who fears toencounter the one must not expect to obtain the other." Two opposing, butmysteriously interrelated human emotions are fear and courage. How manyof us have been swept under by fear only to find within ourselves a sourceof courage beyond our own comprehension? Is it not the fear of theunknown, of our own ability and competence, which creates challenge andtests our willingness to say, I can? And, is it not that ensuing drive to meetthe test which generates courage, which, in turn, is our source of strengthto conquer fear and meet challenge? These two elements are alwayspresent in any great dream or aspiration. If, however, fear suffocates our dreams we surely will fail; if courage sterilizes fear we will die; but, if aproper mixture permeates our quest we will succeed. It therefore takes



peace? John Kennedy, shortly before his death, said: "A man may die,nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurancewithout death." Success can only be achieved if your dream is greater than your fear and equal to your courage.

Often, the dream must be your guidinglight in a fog-shrouded world of apathy and discouragement, and the dreamin some cases must be more important than your very life. Dream and feelthe thrust of life!

"Let Us Choose Life," says the famous Barbara Ward. What is life if we fear to dream, or create, or hope, or love? Without these antidotes to the poisonof apathy we are spiritually and emotionally dead. Life, then, becomesempty, unbearable, senseless, and sterile. Ambassador George Keenanhas said, "It is not important that life be long, only that it has purpose andmeaning." Those who choose to dream of a better world — those whoquestion and search and care and love will need his special kind of courage, for as Hemingway has clearly perceived, "If people bring so muchcourage to this world, the world has to kill them to break them. The worldbreaks every one and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. Butthose that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentleand the very brave impartially." The world may kill the dreamers, butnever the dream. Inquire into the life of those who have sought to share anew dream with the world. Did they not crucify Jesus, stone Copernicus,poison Socrates, persecute Galileo, degrade Darwin, and kill Lincoln? Didthey not imprison Thoreau, ridicule Goddard, excommunicate Luther,humiliate Voltaire, and discredit Lawrence? For those who find the courageto think new thoughts, depart from the norm, or attempt to design a better world, the price will be great, as will be the rewards.Only those able to overcome fear and difficulties will experience the full andsplendid delight of human existence. Reach for your dream, if you dare,and you will grasp

the most profound insight of all — the power and unlimited potential of thehuman spirit .

reach for your dream

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