It is February and what a perfect month to discuss dream and passion. Although many people think about romantic love during February, dreams and passions may be a more complex topic. Over the last few months it is a topic of thought that keeps returning to me. Although romantic love is the ideal, life is more complicated than that. It is important to have meaningful hobbies and or work that makes your heart sing. The more ideal situation is to have romantic love and also be involved in meaningful work.
Over the last couple of months there were two situations that caused me to start thinking about this. The first one involved a young man of about 19 years old. I had volunteered to paint a piano for the city I live in. The day of the dedication , I met this young man for the first time and he volunteered to play the piano. His story gradually unfolded. He explained to me how he loves to play the piano and can play any song he hears by ear. Not having the funds for a piano, he could only play when he could find a piano available. One Christmas his brother bought him an used keyboard for Christmas. This enabled him to play more frequently but he still longed for a piano. Wanting to encourage her talented grandson, his grandmother bought him a piano at an estate sale. He expressed his joy of being able to play the piano every day and how proud he was that his grandmother would recognize and encourage his talent. He told me that he was not like most of the kids his age and loves beautiful music as he put it, not popular music and this has made his seem odd to other kids his age. A wonderful conclusion to his story was when he proclaimed to me his life dream is to become a concert pianist. My immediate though was someone please help this boy find the path to his dream.
Another day I was shopping in Dollar Tree as I love to do, and when I was checking out at the cash register, a very polite young man caught my attention. His politeness and the fact that most of the cashiers are older women peaked my interest and I started a conversation with him. I asked him how long till he could leave to go home and he remarked that it had been a long day. He explained that it would be shortly but then he had to go to his other job. “So you are working two jobs,” I asked? He said that actually he had three jobs. Thinking that this was very ambitious for such a young guy approximately 20 years old, I asked him what was his motivation to work 3 jobs. He quickly answered that it was to save money to make a down payment on a landscaping business. He explained that he works as a foreman for his boss and his boss plans to retire and thinks that he would be the ideal person to take over the business. I asked him how long he thought it would take to get the down payment and he quickly replied, “5 years but then I will be set for life, have my own business, a job I love and can support a family.” Astonished with his determination to follow his dream, I again had the thought of someone please help this kid reach his dream.
Two young men with a dream and both at different steps of planning and steps to reach their goal but the power of passion and keeping the dream alive was evident. I think that this might be easier to when you are young because being naive to the realities of life and how it can try to suck the power out of keeping the visualization of your dream alive. Some people may reach the reality of experiencing their dream more quickly than others but many times the biggest obstacle is just keeping that passion behind the dream to power it to realization. Not giving up, and getting back up when thrown off your feet by life’s cruel and difficult obstacles. Being able to visualize the rainbow past the clouds and rain. That is what life is all about.
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