“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain
(Photograph: butterfly Troupe County, LaGrange, Georgia / Julie Cook
I know, you’re sitting there at your desk, your kitchen table, on your couch…wherever it is you have your computer or tablet checking out the blog world. You read the quote, the one I’ve got perched atop the picture of the butterfly, by none other than Mark, Samuel Lnaghorne Clemens, Twain and you’re thinking to yourself…”yeah, right Julie…”
“Easier said than done” you say. “I can’t just throw caution to the wind and “set sail” as you say.” “I’ve got a job, a family, responsibilities, how can I just up and chase a dream…..?”
Well, over the years, I too have wanted to throw off the bowlines and take off to follow a dream, any dream..but lamented that I was just unable to do so…as I was too chained down with my life.
And then, slowly coming into focus, it began to dawn on me….I began to realize that the following of ones dreams does not necessarily mean having to abandon the life we, you, me currently call ours…the obvious is to toss the world aside and jump on a plane, in the car, handing in our resignation and off we go…but it’s more subtle than all of that drastic business. It’s more intrinsic than a physical pursuit—it’s more of a state of mind…an internal determination. It’s a slow growth not a radical jump.
The frustrating desire of wanting to do something big with my life, once again, hit me after reading the book Come be my Light about Mother Teresa and her life’s journey. Whatever could I do in my little world to make such a difference…any difference??…I live in a little town, I’m just a wife, mom, teacher….
And then it dawned on me, I may not be able to change the entire world, but I can make small changes in my world—these small changes have ripple effects—expanding outwards, out to those whom I come into contact with… who, in turn, may go about in life, their lives, continuing the force of positive change….reaching out, further and farther. Maybe I’m not to be the big game changer, maybe I’m just the catalyst…..the starting point. All big dreams, large or small, have starts…and all great realities have to start somewhere as small or large dreams…
So yes, you may explore, you may dream and you just may discover that you are capable of so much more than you ever imagined….
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