by A.J. Morrison

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 28, 2008

Life is too short to live in the past, it is better to revel in the present and live as if there is no tomorrow. After all, yesterdays are gone forever and tomorrows bring so much possibility. The most we should bring with from our yesterdays is experience, lessons, and comforting memories.

We make tomorrow happen by living today the best we can. I do believe life is destined to hold some regrets, but we can not let those regrets eat us up. We have to choose to make a better course. Even the best liked people have critics. Can we close our ears to the negative? Can we rise past what others think and embrace what we know of ourselves to be true? I was recently told "Think of someone who can do it better than you.... and do it anyway" How simply profound is that? Someone can always do something better than you... so what? Like the song says, "Do it anyway."

Life moves forward, whether or not we choose to move with it... it happens anyway. We must make passage and hold tight to our dreams as we go. When I was in my early twenties another adult informed me that I wasn't allowed to "dream" anymore. That it was time to "grow up"and "grown-ups"arent allowed to have and pursue dreams. But the truth is, that as an adult, we should hold even tighter to our dreams. We may have to work harder for them, sacrifice more for them when we start on them late in life... but we should never give them up. It may take us longer to touch those stars we've always seen in the far off regions of the sky... but that doesn't mean we should stop reaching.

Striving to fulfill dreams is what the American experience is all about. This country was founded on the principle that we can all achieve the lives we set out for. Even in the midst of current economic hardships the media is reporting that the population of millionaires is actually on the rise and considerably so. But whether a dream has monetary goals or just self-fulfilling ones it is still yours, it is sacred, and it is personal. From learning to oil paint to starting a business, dreams are what all the good stuff in life is made of.

Why do I contemplate this now? I don't know. It is something I mull over now and again. Perhaps watching my oldest child graduate middle school and stand at the threshold of high school and all the directions it will send him.... perhaps it is periodically looking into the face of my past.... perhaps it is the battle I sometimes wage with myself over the ups and downs this course of my life has taken. I still need to remind myself that a life without dreams is a life stuck in a dark starless sky. We all must have confidence to keep reaching for those stars, even if on tip-toe. I haven't touched all my stars yet, but I haven't given up. Benjamin Franklin once said that to achieve your dreams you have to put on work clothes. Mine are on, are yours?

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