I often forget how to dream.
At one time, there were untold wonders before me, career paths to explore, places to go, ways to change the world.
Now, there is today, tomorrow and maybe next week, or even next year. I can plan. But I don't often dream.
Through a series of painful and frustrating circumstances, many of the dreams I had were dashed, and the agony that caused made me never want to hope in anything again. It's safer, I reasoned, to never have those dreams, to simply take life as it comes and thus never again be so brutally disappointed.
But what I've found is that, without dreams, ALL of life is a disappointment. If you have nothing to believe in, nothing to pursue, then everything begins to feel like a giant waste of time. When that happens, my mindset becomes the very epitome of that old saying: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Whether I were to die "tomorrow" or in 50 years, I have already given up.
And so, it seems to me that it is a part of being human to need to dream. To look longingly into the unknown future and mold it, ever so gently, with the imagination. It may not happen the way we've crafted it, but it WILL happen, and we'd better still be going when it gets here.
I still struggle with this, very often, if not daily. I find it hard to believe that the future can be better than today. It's been a long time since I was full of hope. But even on the worst days, I have learned to cling for dear life to the last shreds of dreaming, knowing that, tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, I will need to continue building them back up.
I have found nothing so profound to get me through my darkest days than to dream. Try it with me. You will face disappointment. But never let all hope pass away. Tomorrow is coming.
