We had dreams and goals, and they seems to mesmerize every inch of our mind's eye and we promised never to let them go. Yet sometimes, reality slapped you hard on the face and robed you of that precious innocence of hope and somehow those dreams and goals ran out the window and the glue that held them together dried up. However, the thing about dreams is that though you might try to let go of them, ignore them and shove them into the depths of your subconscious, dreams never let go of you.

"Dreams are the necessities of the soul. Dreams are those things that if let unfulfilled sneak back into your conscious reality and force you to regret the fact that they have never fully come to life. You may be able to avoid them for a while or make excuses that lay them down for a slumber by your side, but in the end dreams rule your world. "

-- I am reading Paulo Coelho’s work and reflecting on things lately and so here are some of the lines from him: ( In a way, he is a passive mentor in some ways by his books and I just added him on myspace. I just finish reading Confession of a Pilgrim and Eleven Minutes few days back. )

"I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith," says Paul in one of his Epistles. (And it seems appropriate to remember the theme now that a new year is stretching out before us)

The good fight is the one we wage because our heart asks for it. In heroic times, when the apostles went out into the world to preach the Gospel, or in the days of the knights’ errant, things were easier: there was a lot of territory to travel, and a lot of things to do. Nowadays, however, the world has changed and the good fight has been moved from the battle fields to within us.

The good fight is the one we wage on behalf of our dreams. When they explode in us with all their might – in our youth – we have a great deal of courage, but we still have not learned to fight. After much effort we eventually learn to fight, and then we no longer have the same courage to fight. This makes us turn against ourselves and we start fighting and becoming our own worst enemy. We say that our dreams were childish, difficult to make come true, or the fruit of our ignorance of the realities of life. We kill our dreams because we are afraid of fighting the good fight or perhaps our dream.

So perhaps we claim that it is due to the lack of time, those who did nothing were always tired and could hardly cope with the little work they had to do, always complaining that the day was too short. However, in actuality, they were probably afraid of fighting the good fight.

Or it could be our dreams are our certainties. Because we do not want to see life as a great adventure to be lived, we begin to feel that we are wise, fair and correct in what little we ask of our existence. We look beyond the walls of our day-to-day life and hear the noise of spears clashing, feel the smell of sweat and gun-powder; see the great defeats and the faces of warriors thirsty for victory.

But we never perceive the joy, the immense joy in the heart of those who are fighting, because for them it does not matter that wins or loses, what matters only is to fight the good fight.

Finally, the death of our dreams is about unable to escape the comfort. Life becomes a Sunday afternoon, not asking too much of us and not asking more than what we want to give. So we feel that we are "mature", leave aside the "fantasies of childhood" and guarantee our personal and professional success. We are surprised when someone our age says they still want this or that out of life. But deep in our heart we know that what has happened is that we gave up fighting for our dreams, fighting the good fight.

When we give up our dreams and find comfort, we may enjoy a period of tranquility. But our dead dreams begin to rot inside us and infest the whole atmosphere we live in.

We start acting cruel towards those around us, and eventually begin to direct this cruelty towards ourselves. Sickness and psychoses may even appear. What we wanted to avoid in fighting – disappointment and defeat – becomes the only legacy of our cowardice. And one fine day the dead and rotten dreams make the air difficult to breathe and then we want to die; we want death to free us from our certainties, from our worries, and from that terrible Sunday-afternoon peace.

So, to avoid all that, let us face life with the reverence of mystery and the joy of adventure.

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Dare to dream.

If there were ever a time to dare,

to make a difference,

to embark on something worth doing,

it is now.

Not for any grand cause, necessarily —

but for something that tugs at your heart,

something that’s your aspiration,

something that’s your dream.

You owe it to yourself to make your days here count.

Have fun.

Dig deep.

Stretch.

Dream big.

Know, though, that things worth doing seldom come easily.

There will be good days.

And there will be bad days.

There will be times when you want to turn around,

pack it up, and call it quits.

Those times tell you that you are pushing yourself,

that you are not afraid to learn by trying.

Persist.

Because with an idea,

determination, and the right tools,

you can do great things.

Let your instincts,

your intellect,

and your heart guide you.

Trust.

Believe in the incredible power of the human mind.

Of doing something that makes a difference.

Of working hard.

Of laughing and hoping.

Of lazy afternoons.

Of lasting friends.

Of all the things that will cross your path this year.

The start of something new brings the hope of something great.

Anything is possible.

There is only one you.

And you will pass this way only once.

Do it right.

- Macintosh Computer Ad, 1991

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Sources, notes and external links:

http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com/
http://thewildpomegranate.wordpress.com/2007/12/28/how-does-your-garden-grow

Labels: Hold on, Inner Demons, Life, Paulo Coelho, Philosophical

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