Have you ever thought/felt about your life…if this is a dream, don’t wake me up? I do. With the exception of making enough money as a writer to live on…I have absolutely everything I have dreamt of…
- I am doing what I have always dreamt of: writing. And while like I said it ain’t paying the bills, I am beginning to establish a name/brand for myself. My Country Tis of Thee, Book 1 of my Sergeant Mike’s Miracle Tour, just spent about 36 hours as the #1 free War Fiction on Amazon’s Kindle. It went as high as #40 in the extremely tough Contemporary Fiction category too. But most importantly I wake up excited to go to ‘work’ every day with too many stories to ever write in one life time running around in my crazy head.
- I have six beautiful, interesting and amazing kids. Four of whom I have raised to adulthood without a single unplanned pregnancy, trouble with the law or major drug problem (hey this is me…I would be disappointed if they did not experiment at least a little). All of them either go to college, work or serve their country with honor. Not bad for a single Mom.
- PanKwake surprises me more every single day. Though the autism will always challenge her, she has come so far. We have gone from several major meltdowns per day to one a week or less. We can go places and she can hold it together for quite some time. She has taught herself to skate. She has a couple of REAL friends. She can advocate for herself, explaining her special needs to those willing to listen…and knows how to handle those who won’t. And most importantly, she is happy.
- I have not one amazing man in my life but two….and no, you don’t get no more details than that.
- I have good friends.
- There is a rough over my head and food in the fridge.
- I have everything I need…if not everything I want.
- And in a few days I am going on vacation…alone…to my country for the first time in seven and a half years.
Not bad…not bad at all. The thing is that it was not always like this. But I got to this point because I followed my DREAMS.
That is something that is harder to do sometimes than it sounds. From the time we begin to crawl…if not sooner…the word we hear most often is ‘NO’ usually followed by things like ‘don’t do that’ and ‘you can’t.’ Our parents, teachers and society think it is their honor bound duty to crush every single dream we have. We are instead pushed towards things that are ‘acceptable.’ Is it any wonder that by the time we reach our teens we are angry and rebellious? That as adults we drink, do drugs, over-eat, and a myriad of other addictions just to numb our pain.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It is never too late. You too can start to live your dream. Be that person you always dreamt of being. You just have to make the decision…take it one step at a time. Of course, the saddest part is that some of us are so ‘beaten down’ that we don’t even remember what we want to be when we grow up. If that is you, I want to share with you one resource that really helped me get to this point. It is the book Wishcraft by Barbara Sher. It is FREE and just one click away. Go ahead…I dare…begin to dream again.
I say all of this today on Serious Sunday for another reason…one of the most popular dreams out there is writing a book. Whether it is a one-time…one book that is just bubbling inside of you…or like me the profession/career that you have always dreamt of…you want to write. Well, in addition to being Serious Sunday, this is also November 1st, which means this is the first day of NaNoWriMo…National Novel Writing Month. And that link is full of hundreds of thousands of people around the world just like you…dreaming that same dream. Check it out too. The challenge? Write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November.
But don’t worry this is my fourth or fifth year and I have only ‘won’ once. Three times I have failed. Twice I have had computer issues that lost my whole novel. And the one time I did ‘win’? I wrote 66,000+ words…and the damned novel still ain’t finished.
That is how dreams work. Sometimes you have them and you try but fail. You know what there is nothing wrong with that. You did something most people never will…you fucking tried.
My 1st ex-husband’s grandfather was a moderately successful artist (in other words he sold enough paintings to live a decent life but a couple of hundred years from now no one is going to fighting to buy his shit for millions of dollars). When my ex visited the man, they spent the whole day at the beach with his grandfather painting (seascapes were his bread and butter…which is why no one is going to pay millions for something so ‘common’ but the man lived his dream and that is all that fucking matters…not fame or even money). At the end of the day, his grandfather looked at it and literally threw the canvas in the trash. My ex was shocked and asked why…even if he was not happy with it, couldn’t he have ‘fixed it? His grandfather said something that I think should become a famous quote…”That was good paint.” In other words, even though he did not like the end result, would not put his name on it or sell it, he had learned something by doing it.
So if you have always dreamt of being a writer or just have that one story inside of you begging and pleading to be told, check out NaNoWriMo and join me on this adventure.
Goddess bless…may we all live our dreams.
I will end with this snippet from Pretty Woman…it is actually both the beginning and ending scene. And one of my favorite scenes of all time…
Tara Cox - Literary Erotica 