When You Dream a Dream, Don’t Let It Die, Or It Will Never Come True

It was fall 1974, first drawing project for the art class  in the Exploratory Block-each marking period in a different class (Art, Industrial Arts, Home Economics & Spanish).  The assignment was to select a portrait image from a magazine-we had some in boxes in the art classroom or we cold select one from home.  At the time, the Mary Tyler Moore show was one of my favorite programs to watch and Rhoda Morgenstern was one of my favorite television characters-“Mary Richard’s neighbor in her Minneapolis apartment.  My Mom had a magazine at home with a pretty portrait of Valerie Harper, the actress who played Rhoda. I took it in.  The assignment was to fold the photo in half, right down the middle of the face, glue it to a white piece of thick drawing paper  and do a pencil drawing of the missing half of the face.  There may have been more to the rubric of the assignment, but that’s what I remember.  It was an exercise on symmetry.  We had a couple days in class and then we had the weekend, with the assignment being due on Monday. The assignment was turned in on time and later in the week when it was passed out, how surprised I was that I earned a C+ on it.  Art, drawing and painting had been fun for me in elementary school. My Mom always had art supplies around the house and she looked for enrichment classes for me to take to lean more. By no means was I a Prodigy or one with exceptional talent, it was just an interest.  Did I neglect a detail in the directions and that was the reason for the C+ grade, I don’t know, possibly.  However, I do remember getting the assignment back and seeing all my table mates, the 3 other students who sat at my table, with grades of As and Bs.  Did I question the grade to the teacher or ask my Mom to, so that I could see what I missed?  No, but that would have been a good idea to understand what could have been done to have earned a better grade.  What that experience did do was squelch my interest in art, or at least drawing and painting and that is totally on me. I guess it took fifty years to get beyond that…

  Tomorrow, November 9, marks 4 years since my book, It’s a Great Day To…Gather Around a Table.  It’s a day that will, for the rest of my life, be one of those monumental days personally. Of course the days we got married, had our three children, baptized them and watched two off them get married and have THEIR children will always be held in the highest regard, the day the book came out was very close behind all of that.  Years in the making.  When the art class ‘Debbie Downer’ experience squelched that part of my creativity, the writing and dancing took over and really, how much time does one really have so maybe those two interests would have won out anyway.  

     The book was my “Rose Bowl” a goal I had hoped to reach since I was a little girl.  As many of us do, we put out personal goals and dream to the back burner to raise our families or reach other milestones we feel that are important for the good of the family and we find other fulfilling endeavors to satisfy our creativity or other satisfying interests. What I have learned over all these years of an adult life is that even if a goal has to be put on hold or placed on the back burner, finding other interests along the way,  helps move you to that goal.  In looking back, here are some good lessons learned along the way…

     If you truly have a dream and it’s important to you, take steps along the way to achieve that goal,  moving in the right direction finding joy in successes in your areas of interest or in similar areas.  As I look back, rather than a sport, it was the dance that fulfilled the fitness and creativity part of me.  On the weekends or in the car, a notebook and pencil helped develop my creativity in writing. The plays, the dance team and Impact Dance programs in high school and college, continued to satisfy the interest in creativity.  When I taught school and later began raising our three children, it was the lessons communicated to our children and other that continues to satisfy the need for creativity.  At age forty, when the last child started kindergarten, it was the teaching ballet and fitness classes at our local gym Genesys Athletic Club, getting certified and creating my own Pilates classes, inspired by a good friend, Geri, and creating a Fitness Ballet class for the club…From there, it was the children’s classes, the cooking, all moving along the way in the direction that would end up with a website and eventually the book…

     When we set off to reach goals or to achieve goodness in our lives,  we can try to figure it all out on our own, do the research spend time, maybe even spin wheels…Or, we can look to people who we know or people we enjoy reading about and see what they did.  There’s nothing wrong with picking the brain of someone who has been there before us or listening to the words of the writers or experts in the areas we are interested in.  For me, that would be Ina Garten, Alexandra Stoddard, Trinny Woodall, Dr. Casey Means as well as  family and Chief Friends who inspire me.

     Also very valuable is to block out the naysayers or ‘Debbie downers’ along the way, who can drag you down. In talking to a young mom recently about those on social media who comment negativity on someone’s post or photos.  The young mom’s comment was -paraphrasing here-“I think those that comment negatively maybe wish they could do what “so and so is doing’.”  The negative comments were on a post from Dr. Casey Means showing how she cleaned out her fridge before departing on a long trip, taking good healthy, home cooked and nutritions food, not only not wasting what she had on hand but bring it along so she had good food to eat along the way”. Some of the comments were quite ‘mean.’  She put no one down, she merely showed what she did.  I agree with the young mom on her comments.  It’s too bad these naysayers can’t find some fulfillment in their life rather than bringing others down. And that’s another point, when you have good things going on in your life, you don’t have time for the bad stuff and you want the same ‘good vibes’ for others. Positive energy can promote more positive energy.  Keep good energy (the title of Dr. Casey Means book) in your life and that too an keep you moving in the direction of reaching your goals….

     If you are looking to reach goals in your life, determine what they are, alter if necessary and get moving.  See and celebrate the successes along the way on your journey and those around you.  No one succeeds by themselves, there is a community of family and friends who help you make things happen and you be there for others Too…Life should be a joyful journey with those you love.  There will be obstacles along the way and hardships.  Yet in those hardships, we develop our emotional muscles to strength ourselves,  making us more compassionate, loving and stronger so that we can make more days greater for those around us and in turn, our lives more fulfilling for it is so much better to give than to receive…Wishing you a Great Day ❤️