The other day I asked my friend “How are you doing?” The response, “Living the dream!” I chuckled and we continued our conversation. Since then those words have been echoing in my head forcing me to question, “Am I living the dream?”
Every way I twist the question the answer is “ABSOLUTELY YES!”. For a minute or two my answer was leaning towards a strong no. However, the more I thought about it I realized that I am. We often default to no because we have so many dreams that go unfulfilled. We focus on what we didn’t accomplish, what we didn’t purchase, where we didn’t travel, etc. You know all the things that do not truly define what we need for our existence. The dreams that are fulfilled are defined first by what we need. IF our wants align with our needs we are even more satisfied.
I really needed to think this thru, so I created a short list of my wants versus needs:
Wants:
I want to travel with my family
I want to drive a nice care
I want to help those less fortunate.
I want to have a successful business
I want to create a positive legacy
I want retire early
I want to live long enough to see my youngest complete her education and start a career
Needs:
I need to keep a roof over my family’s head.
I need to keep food on the family table.
I need to keep clothes on my family’s back.
I need to work.
I need to appreciate the sacrifices of others.
I need to be patient.
I need to keep and always have faith.
I need to spend quality time with my family and those few true blue friends.
What’s truly amazing all my needs are being meet and they help satisfy my wants. Let me repeat, that was my short list, but at a glance how’s that for living the dream! I have so many unfulfilled dreams but they are not to be considered “deferred” for as Langston Hughes wrote:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
My dreams will be fulfilled whether I do it, my family or my community. You see we need to expand dream building and fulfillment beyond ourselves, encompass your village. If one person fulfills a dream that you weren’t able to accomlish celebrate because it didn’t die! If you think about your ancestors, or better yet the movie Roots. Each generation made it one step further in fulfilling the dream. Where one failed the next picked up and moved forward. Epic journeys ran like a race. Each person charged with completing a certain distance then passing the baton to the next to move forward; the magic of creating legacies, each building on the success of the one prior.
Every day we see the light. Every night we see the darkness we have completed another step on Jacob’s ladder.
Who would have thought the simple 3 word response would have stimulated so much thought and re-evaluation of oneself. We also learn in those words the value of surrounding yourself with positive people.
On your darkest day, in the darkest hour, the right words can give you so much strength and power.
Yes, I am living the dream! Nightmares are only temporary; they will not define or deter me from sharing my talents and celebrating those who live theirs!
Soulful Storytellers LLC 