Steven Cross's Blog - Posts Tagged "fulfillment"
Dreams are for more than those who sleep
CROSSBYTES:
Chasing your dreams will not guarantee you'll catch them, but not chasing them will guarantee you don't.
I have heard people criticize others for their foolish dreams or their "pie in the sky" plans, and it angers me when I hear it. While it is true that there are many dreams that go unfulfilled, that does not mean that it is the end of life as we know it. I'm not sure that I fall into the category of those people who believe that everyone has a destiny that he or she will fulfill regardless of what happens to impede that destiny. I like to think of destiny in this way. Picture cows in a fenced-in field. Within the fenced-in field, the cows have freedom of movement though other obstacles, like other cows, for instance, might get in the way. I think we are fenced in not necessarily because of our destiny, but because of our environment and our DNA. For instance, I once dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but I was not born with the talent that would get me there. Now, some of you may say that I could have practiced more and prepared, but even then, there are too many things that would have been completely out of my control. Injuries. Scouts not finding me. Anything could have kept me from reaching my dreams. Now, I'm talking around in circles here, but let me try to get to the point. We have to have dreams and goals because if we had no dreams or goals, we would not go out and test the waters of life. We would merely float on the currents of chance. At least when we are chasing our dreams we have some control over our destiny.
It's quite possible that a dream you chase might lead you to a reality far greater than your dream. It's quite possible that you will chase your dreams and you will get them. One of the things that you and I must always examine is how much we learn in striving for our dreams. Is the victory in the striving or is it in the winning? I don't believe that any dream we achieve can give us complete fulfillment anyway. We may accomplish everything we have ever wanted and still have something missing, something that goes deeper, something spiritual. But I will leave that subject for another day. When I was in the eleventh grade, my dream was to teach, and I did for over 30 years, but even then, I wasn't completely satisfied. We can never stop dreaming and never stop reaching because when we do, we stop living.
On to another subject. Speaking of Dreams.
I feel like I found a hitherto missing Christmas present this morning. In the mail, I got the paperback copy of my book. Deliver Us from Evil. It was a dream of mine to write a religious, horror novel for young adults, and I did it. Today, I saw the end results, and I'm pretty happy. This coming week I'll probably be getting a royalty check. I know it's not going to be much but I'm still very happy about it. I invite you to take a look at it at the following link. If you decide to buy it, let me warn you that it definitely does have horror elements. If it were made into a movie it would probably be PG-13.
Ah, movies, that's another one of my dream. Even though I'm probably too old to do it, I'd love to sell a screenplay. I wrote a screenplay for this book a while ago, and I durn near optioned it to an independent producer. In fact, we had gotten to the point where we were discussing price and subsidiary rights and then he felt a calling to do something else. This was a dream that was dashed to pieces, but I got over it and I didn't quit. I'm still working.
You can find Deliver Me from Evil on Amazon.
Chasing your dreams will not guarantee you'll catch them, but not chasing them will guarantee you don't.
I have heard people criticize others for their foolish dreams or their "pie in the sky" plans, and it angers me when I hear it. While it is true that there are many dreams that go unfulfilled, that does not mean that it is the end of life as we know it. I'm not sure that I fall into the category of those people who believe that everyone has a destiny that he or she will fulfill regardless of what happens to impede that destiny. I like to think of destiny in this way. Picture cows in a fenced-in field. Within the fenced-in field, the cows have freedom of movement though other obstacles, like other cows, for instance, might get in the way. I think we are fenced in not necessarily because of our destiny, but because of our environment and our DNA. For instance, I once dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but I was not born with the talent that would get me there. Now, some of you may say that I could have practiced more and prepared, but even then, there are too many things that would have been completely out of my control. Injuries. Scouts not finding me. Anything could have kept me from reaching my dreams. Now, I'm talking around in circles here, but let me try to get to the point. We have to have dreams and goals because if we had no dreams or goals, we would not go out and test the waters of life. We would merely float on the currents of chance. At least when we are chasing our dreams we have some control over our destiny.
It's quite possible that a dream you chase might lead you to a reality far greater than your dream. It's quite possible that you will chase your dreams and you will get them. One of the things that you and I must always examine is how much we learn in striving for our dreams. Is the victory in the striving or is it in the winning? I don't believe that any dream we achieve can give us complete fulfillment anyway. We may accomplish everything we have ever wanted and still have something missing, something that goes deeper, something spiritual. But I will leave that subject for another day. When I was in the eleventh grade, my dream was to teach, and I did for over 30 years, but even then, I wasn't completely satisfied. We can never stop dreaming and never stop reaching because when we do, we stop living.
On to another subject. Speaking of Dreams.
I feel like I found a hitherto missing Christmas present this morning. In the mail, I got the paperback copy of my book. Deliver Us from Evil. It was a dream of mine to write a religious, horror novel for young adults, and I did it. Today, I saw the end results, and I'm pretty happy. This coming week I'll probably be getting a royalty check. I know it's not going to be much but I'm still very happy about it. I invite you to take a look at it at the following link. If you decide to buy it, let me warn you that it definitely does have horror elements. If it were made into a movie it would probably be PG-13.
Ah, movies, that's another one of my dream. Even though I'm probably too old to do it, I'd love to sell a screenplay. I wrote a screenplay for this book a while ago, and I durn near optioned it to an independent producer. In fact, we had gotten to the point where we were discussing price and subsidiary rights and then he felt a calling to do something else. This was a dream that was dashed to pieces, but I got over it and I didn't quit. I'm still working.
You can find Deliver Me from Evil on Amazon.
