I bet you’re already rolling your eyes at the title of this blog. Dreams? What kind of time do I have for recapturing dreams?
I have a family to take care of, a job to work and on top of all that, relationships to maintain. Come on Meredith, be real, where in all of that do I have time to chip away on some stupid dream I had before the kids.
I’m here to tell you, from the start, I have no clue.
It’s something I’m finding myself really struggling with right now. I, like so many other people, have tried writing a book. I got half the way through the first draft and just stopped. My daughter was born and with the addition of another person to keep alive during the day, my dream of FINALLY, AT LONG LAST having a first draft of a novel to begin workshopping fizzled into the background.
My daughter is about to turn one year old. It’s insane how fast the year went by and how fast yet another year has slipped through my fingers without another finished draft. I imagine the characters of the book frozen in the last situation I wrote them into, looking at their watches and saying “Hey! Meredith! Our father’s murder still hasn’t been solved yet. Get on it!”
Apart from the constant nagging thought of unfinished business playing around in my mind, I find myself feeling like a perpetual hypocrite to my children. Here I am telling my three-year-old son that he can be whatever he wants to be, to dream big and don’t let anything stop you from doing what you love. Here I am thinking about that half-finished manuscript and knowing I’m not putting my money anywhere near where my mouth is.
But, what if…? What is at the beginning of next month, April, I say to myself and you kind reader, that I will try everything in my power to no longer feel like a hypocrite. I will work on recapturing my dreams. What if instead of taking those few moments of quiet to web surf or worse, gorge myself myself on cookies, I allow myself to dream and finish that first draft.
I might be more tired because finding quiet with two small children means getting up extremely early or staying up later. But I will be working on my dream. I will be showing my children that making dreams a reality doesn’t have to be some platitude in Disney movies or on bumper stickers
It can be done,
but it takes hard work and not a fairy wand to make it happen.
What better legacy could you ask to hand down to your children than that?
