Follow Your Dreams

I've had a tough week. After waiting for nearly four months for the drive line to arrive and get installed (thus thwarting my summer in Nova Scotia plans), I thought my car was up and running again, and I was back in the game of chasing my dreams. So when my car was towed home from a camping trip this past weekend, I was not only rightfully bummed, I questioned whether I was supposed to be leaving the canyon at all. . . .as if some divine (or less than divine) intervention is trying to tell me something that I clearly seem to be failing to hear or pay attention to.

But then one of my fbfriends posted something interesting that I have continued to think about as this week unfolds. She posted the following quote by John Maxwell: "Follow your dreams...Don't allow the fire of adversity to make you a skeptic. Allow it to purify you."

The part that has kept me thinking is the idea that following your dreams may not necessarily be a path of love and sunshine. . . .lol. I think I've had this notion that if I am following my dreams, I will know that I'm on the right path because it will somehow be wonderful and easy. But that may not necessarily be the case. In fact, it may be the fire of adversity needed to purify the path! (yikes!)

This past weekend a hiker's body was recovered from the Tanner trail. This was an experienced hiker, as they only issue back country permits for that trail if you have a solid history of serious hiking out in the back country wilderness of the canyon. Yet there he was, living his dream, hiking the amazing grand canyon, but the heat overtook him, and in his panic made choices that ended his dream. It's just sad, and a bit terrifying, quite honestly, because it only reinforces this idea that following my dream may have an outcome very different from what I hope or intend.

But I think that's what's so terrifying about following one's dream, because the outcome of leaving the path of safety or security becomes exciting by the unpredictability of the unknown, but can also cause a person to stop at the edge of the known waiting for the outcome to become clear. But I think by the very nature of following one's dream, the outcome can only be known by stepping off of the beaten path and into the wilderness of the dream's terrain. Yet, in so doing, we step out into the abyss of a dream whose outcome is yet to be woven into the fabric of the dream itself. It may turn out wonderful. . . .but it may also take an unexpected and unwanted twist and turn of events and outcomes.

But such is the very nature of chasing one's dreams. . . .

So I need to rethink my belief about the path to dreams being free of debris and danger and obstacles that need to be hurdled. Maybe for some people the path of their dreams is filled with love and sunshine along the way, but for others, the weather is a bit more complex. . . .lol. And I do think my car is an issue to be dealt with, but I am beginning to think that the issue is something completely different from what it first seemed. So I am still in progress with my life. . . .and the following of my dreams. . . .