Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCLXXVIII

There may be a day when I'll count it as a success that I'm able to walk to the mailbox. I wonder if I'll still be blogging then. You may be reading some high drama account of how I braved a slippery driveway to bring my trash can back away from the street. It may sound a little humorous, but it is a distinct possibility. Overall, I'm an optimistic person, a positive thinker, yet I must admit that I've given some thought to what my mental outlook will be if I ever reach the stage in life where I will be basically immobile. It's a little depressing thinking about it, but I believe I will be better prepared if I have a plan of action to keep myself in a positive state of mind if and when that day ever comes.

I must never stop dreaming. Unless I live to be more than 120 years old, the majority of my life is already behind me, yet I still have so much that I want to accomplish, so many places I still want to go, and so many marathons that I still want to run. There's no doubt about the fact that eventually I will have to scale back some of these challenges, but I never want to reach the point in life where all of my personal ambition is gone and I have no goals that I still want to achieve. Even if I have to endure a little ridicule about how slowly I move and how long it takes me to complete my task, it will be worth it all when I can ask this simple question, "How many other people my age do you see who are even attempting to do what I've just done?"

The reason for writing those first two paragraphs is to make sure you are aware of where I stand regarding my own personal dreams and goals when you read the rest of what I have to say. So let me emphatically declare one more time, "As long as I have breath in my body, I will NEVER stop dreaming about at least one more challenge that I (me, myself) want to conquer. But something else occurred to me a few days ago that I gave a token amount of consideration, then one of my good friends, Nicole Dray, made a simple statement that brought it back to my mind like a torrent. She said, "When your children's dreams come true, yours do too." I guess I was amazed that I had just been thinking almost the same identical thing, and Nicole worded it so well. Thank you so much, Nicole. I'm pretty sure I know why you said it, and congratulations are in order!

I'm absolutely sure why my mind was on that topic. I have two kids, a daughter and a son, and both of them are seeing dreams fulfilled at the same time. My son set sales goals high enough to win a trip to an exotic island for he and his wife, and for the second year in a row, he has achieved that dream. For years my daughter has dreamed of a career that she would love to pursue, but it's a dream that comes with a price. She has now paid that price, and at exactly the same time that my son will be living it up in the Caribbean, she will be graduating with the degree for which she has so long dreamed, with a lucrative job already in the bag. And Mom and Dad feel like we've just won the lottery!

If you have kids, you'll understand what I'm talking about, but there's a little more to it than that. You see, a long time ago, when our kids were tiny babies, Angie and I dreamed of preparing them to make something of themselves, and part of our sense of pride is seeing those dreams come true. What we've learned in the process, however, is that by teaching our kids to dream, we have multiplied our own dreams. She and I both still have our own individual goals that we are working hard to accomplish, yet now that our kids know how to dream and how to pursue those dreams, that's where we've directed our major focus. It's not about us anymore.

Preston