Well....It's been a while. I think the last time I updated on the Year of Dreams, I was up a Tuscan mountainside talking religion with some friendly Italians.
I have no idea how to pronounce that.
I'm back now. I've been back for almost three months and was almost knocked out of the stream of the dream. You see, life is difficult - even when you are living your dreams. And when you're in between dream objectives, it can be even harder.
Thanks for the encouragement, Mr. Wayne.
I got caught in a slump. I think part of it is the normal "young adult oh man I'm graduated and on my own and back from an adventure and have to figure out life", but another part was something more. Without going into detail, I was basically hit with a succession of circumstances that put me in a state where it was hard to even keep my head up. In that state, old lies and insecurities sprang up. These situations usually cause a person to become focused on themselves- or, as someone wise once described it "you become and inward spiral, and not an outward one". This time was no exception.
Spirals can get messy.
Throughout that time, if someone mentioned or asked about the year of dreams, I would kind of shrug my shoulders and think "Well, maybe next year I'll get further than July." I was passively giving up on something I started. I was basically letting go of and forfeiting all the lessons that I learned this year. I wasn't being a dreamer.
And then I had a conversation with someone closest to my heart. A nearly-seven-year-old hero who's fighting difficult circumstance after difficult circumstance and still daring to dream:
We were hanging out in a back room after church and I was sitting around on a giant teddy bear when I was attacked. Apparently I had become the bad guy in a game I didn't know I was playing. Being in the lame state I was, I didn't attack back as usual. Instead, I pleaded.
"Come on, bud, be nice to me today. I had a rough week."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, then..."
He then proceeded to attack again, this time with more fervor.
"Dude, I'm serious! I'm super bummed right now, be nice to me."
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Snap out of it, you hear me?!?"
I couldn't help but smile.
"See," he said. "You're going to be all right."
Then he grabbed my hand and said "Come on, get up! You're not done yet," and proceeded to drag me to the beanbag where he delivered a WWF style smackdown.
Maybe the teddy bear helped a little, too.
I didn't think about how profound that was until later. There I was moping about my circumstances next to this kid whose every week is filled with doctor's offices and physical therapists and chemotherapy- trials far beyond the capacity of many to even fathom, yet you'd never know it by the way they are navigated and walked through by him and his family.
And here he was, grabbing my hand, telling me to snap out of it, telling me I'm going to be okay and that I'm not done yet. Now, I realize he is only six and half and what he was saying had more to do with making it okay for him to attack me again than delivering a profound and deep encouragement, but I think there's still something there.
Life is hard. That's a fact. It's harder for some than others. However, that's not to say that each struggle isn't relative or valid. Just because what you are facing may not be cancer, it doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt or isn't significant. But, it does help to offer a little perspective.
Welcome to the OC.
And, the fact is, if you're still here, you're not done. And if you don't get up, you'll miss out on opportunities to be effective and will most certainly miss out on your purpose and your dream. However, sometimes it does take a friend to grab our hand and remind us not to give up.
And show you the world (shining, shimmering, splendid).
This month in the Year of Dreams is NEGU November. NEGU stands for Never Ever Give Up and is an incredible organization started by a young girl who was terminally ill with cancer. In an unspeakable act of selflessness while in the hospital , she wanted to come up with a way to encourage other kids in her situation to Never Ever Give Up. She wanted to take a jar and fill it with joyful things and send it to kids in the hospital, reminding them to NEGU. Although she is no longer walking the earth and has gone on to her Home, she left behind an incredible legacy in her short life. She faced a terrible circumstance and used it to bless others.
To learn more about NEGU and the amazing young woman who inspired it, or to contribute to this incredible project, visit http://www.negu.org/.
So there you have it. The Year of Dreams continues on, even when things get tough. The Year of Dreams will NEGU. What about you?
