What Happens to Delayed Dreams?

We all have dreams. Not just those at night that may entertain or bother us. I’m talking about dreams for our future or rather what some may call “goals.” Did you ever wonder, what happens to delayed dreams?

Sometimes we get busy in life, and we end up putting off the very dreams that we have wanted since childhood. These are the dreams that make us alive inside our hearts and souls. Sometimes we just go through the motions of life and postpone our dreams while telling ourselves that we will catch our dreams later. But when will later come? Should we continue putting off our dreams, or should we grasp and fight to hold on to them, thus making them a reality?

Poet Langston Hughes advises us in his poem “Dreams” (1)  to “Hold fast to dreams/ For if dreams die/ Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot fly.” I agree with this. I have noticed that when I have a dream, a goal or a project that I am excited about that if I keep delaying to start it, then the excitement wanes and that it gets harder and harder to start it. I find every obstacle popping up to delay me, and I allow these things to postpone my dreams. However, this should not be acceptable. Sure, we might need to delay for a day or a week. But what if it becomes months and then years? How long can we hold off our dreams?

Inventors have dreams that lead them to create amazing tools and gadgets that we use to make our lives easier and more interesting. What if they had delayed their dreams? Could you imagine life without a laptop or a smartphone? What about all of the creative scientists who have made great discoveries and found cures for diseases? What if they had delayed their dreams? What would become of our world if all of us, especially our geniuses, doctors, scientists and even our writers delay their dreams?

Dreams keep us alive and give us a purpose in life. This purpose might help us, but it can end up helping others, too. We need to struggle to achieve our goals and not allow them to be delayed or to dry up. Langston Hughes wonders in another poem “Harlem (Dreams Deferred)” (2), “What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?/ Or fester like a sore.” I believe it truly must dry up like something withering away… almost like a dry, crumbled leaf that turns to dust in the wind. Life without dreams means we are living like zombies. It is a spiritual death. Delaying dreams can only lead to the funeral of one’s creativity. That is a tragedy!

I implore you not to give up your dreams. Don’t even postpone them. Go and grasp them with firm determination. Dreams are great, but they become a reality only when dreams are put into action. So, set your goals down on paper, sketch out a plan and then start working toward your goals.

Good luck in achieving your dreams!

References where you can view the full poems by Langston Hughes:

(1)   https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dreams-2/

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/harlem-dream-deferred/

Being My Own Muse

Dear Readers,

Those of you who know me and my writing, I am sure you have wondered where I disappeared to. I fell somewhere down the rabbit hole, took some turns and got distracted by all the responsibilities of life. Now, I’m trying to get back on track and into my writing again. Writing to me is like breathing, so you can imagine that I’m malnutritioned by now and gasping for creative air. I have been doing my occasional poems and even wrote a short story recently, which I have entered into a competition. Keep your fingers crossed. But now I want to go deeper into my writing and get back to my novels.

How to get on schedule? Benjamin Franklin said: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Well, this is good advice; however, I already get up at the crack of dawn to go to my teaching job. Then, I return in the afternoon and though it might be considered at an early hour, by that time after a long day of children’s demands, I’m exhausted… I’m haggard. I’m ready for a nervous breakdown! So, I need a bit of time to recharge my battery and to find my mind again.

Sure, evening is an option to write, but sometimes I have work I brought home with me. Yes, imagine teachers have homework, too! Then after that is done, I should fulfill the demands of my husband, yes I have to remember my better half needs my attention, too. So, I’m still trying to find this new daily writing schedule.

Maybe I can do it during the weekend. This could be a great option in between the housework I’m catching up on. And more school work. And even a bit of extra time with my husband and possibly a chance to catch some extra z’s.

MIA

 

                                                  

                            

Once I find time to write, what to do when my Muse is missing in action? Where the hell did she go? Especially when I need her? I have learned that I can’t wait for my Muse to decide to show up. I have to push forward and be my own hero. I have to push my inspiration like praying for a miracle, and somehow it seems to fall out of the sky. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Just take it and run with it. Finally, I have some written words on a page! Finally a finished product! And without that naughty, missing Muse. So sometimes you just have to save yourself. I have to become my own Muse!

Now, the question is, how to schedule a writing schedule in the midst of a chaotic and busy life? Best answer: just fit it in anywhere I find small breaks, breaths and stretch the time. That means that preplanning a story starts while trying to fall asleep, and sometimes I write it in my dreams. Some story plots reveal themselves while taking a shower. And while on the way to work, just typing it into my phone. Writing has no borders, boundaries or special time. Writing is any time… any place where I can find the time. The way to a finished product is determination. Writing is something that is in my blood, so I must do it no matter what. So, what is the moral of my story: any writer must realize that if a writer truly wants to share their vision with the world, then no obstacle can stop the words from flowing.