Dreams Don't Expire

The other day I was replying to one of our followers who emailed us to let us know how much he loved our blog and how he was living vicariously through it;  "My dreams have long since been abandoned", he said.

This made me sad.  And it made me think; dreams do not have an expiration date.

This man literally felt that his ship had sailed.  But it had not!  As long as a person is living, willing and able - dreams don't need to be abandoned.  It is so easy to make excuses, it's so easy to say it's too late.  If we have learned anything throughout our journey it is that living your dreams takes tremendous effort and, depending on your dream, significant risk.  You have to be willing to sacrifice, you must be willing to fight, and you must be willing to take the good with the bad.  If your dream is to see the world, it doesn't need to be by boat; it can be by car, by bus or by train!  Get creative.  Dreams evolve and they have a tendency to lead you to places you never imagined.  Doors open up, people reach out and magic begins to happen.  Trust me, it is MUCH easier to abandon your dream and live life as you are, but if there is a dream that is tugging at your heart strings, the consequences could be dire.  The air is full of the whispers of discarded dreams.

For those of you who need a little inspiration - here's an excerpt of a book I've just started reading; Tales of a Female Nomad.  It is the story of Rita Gelmen who, at 48 and on the brink of divorce, traded in her high society life in Los Angeles and began living out of a backpack and traveling the world as a nomad.  If nothing else, maybe she can offer you a little perspective:

I first realized something was missing about five years ago when a woman wearing a floor length muumuu and sandals sat next to me on an airplane.  She told me she was in the business of booking sailing tours for captains around the world...As she was telling me about her trip, tears began streaming from my eyes...


(I realized) I was crying for my lost spirit.  I remembered that once I'd dreamed of sailing around the world, of paddling down the Amazon, of sitting around a fire with tribal people and sharing their food and their lives.  My husband had no interest in boats or tribal cultures...


Three months later, I boarded the Tigris without my husband...and was touched by the world of otherness.


I was never the same again.


- Rita Goldman Gelman

It's never too late live your dream.  It is not late to live the life you imagined.


Love,
Brittany & Scott