A special thank you to author Destiny Allison for writing a post on my blog today! Make sure you check out her website to get more info on her book Pipe Dreams.
Sometimes it’s a tickle, sometimes a raging burn. Occasionally, it’s the thing that makes you hate your reflection in the mirror. Large, small, realistic or impossible, dreams are intrinsic to being human. We can’t help it. We’re wired to want more.
Dreams are how we got from the caves to the skyscrapers, the canoes to the ocean liners. They are also the cause of misery for many because they seem so far fetched or because no one supports them and we lose faith in ourselves.
The truth? Not everyone attains their dreams. Sometimes, one can spend an entire life pursuing one in vain. The Don Quixotes of the world are people to whom I’m grateful. If they weren’t out chasing windmills, I’d have a hard time chasing mine. Nobody wants to look the fool, fail where we can be seen, or face a hard reality. Sometimes we have to, but that’s also is a good thing.
The thing I love about people unafraid to pursue their passion is that they move the world forward an inch at a time. It’s not the achievement of dreams that’s always important; it’s the pursuit of them that enlightens mankind. Dreams illuminate the possible. Maybe one person fails, but their effort triggered a spark in someone else, someone who’ll pick the torch and carry the dream over the finish line.
In my novel, Pipe Dreams, all of my characters have disparate dreams, each of them nearly impossible to achieve. Nobody gets what they want in they way they wanted it, but because each was unwilling to let go they collectively force a societal change.
That’s what we do every day. Whether you want to be a writer, a basketball player, or make the world’s biggest pumpkin pie, your efforts teach you about yourself and inspire others in the process.
A dream, a passion, a whispered prayer are the fires that keeps us alive. Without them, we’re zombies and the apocalypse is now.
But I’ll tell you a secret. Most dreams are attainable if you’re willing to do the work. Success is about moving forward inch by inch. It’s about showing up every day, reaching out to others, and practicing your craft. Nobody gets there alone or because they want it. They get there because they make a commitment and don’t let anything interfere with it.
Pursuing a dream is like a marriage. Most of the time it’s joyous. Other times it’s hard, boring, or downright discouraging. Those moments, the ones that make you want to scream, are where you get down and dirty with your dreams. You negotiate, you plead. Then, when you’re about ready to give up, you listen and learn a few things.
Destiny Allison is an award-winnning metal sculptor and writer based in Santa Fe, NM. Last year, she published Shaping Destiny: A Quest for Meaning in Art and Life and it recently took first place honors in the non-fiction/memoir category in the 2013 LuckyCinda Publishing Global Book Contest. Pipe Dreams is the first of what she hopes to be many published works of fiction.
