The message out there is that it’s harder than ever to follow your dreams. I don’t know if it’s harder than ever, but it’s hard.
Here’s what the messengers neglect to say, because it helps their cause if you’re discouraged: It has always been hard.
It’s not easy to chase dreams. Half the time people will say dreaming is a bad thing.
“Oh, you’re dreaming.”
“Well … yes. Yes, I am.”
“Don’t be so foolish.”
The messenger is often a loved one, and that hurts so much, many people relinquish their dreams and choose a more “practical” path. The thing about the practical approach is that you’re still working hard, you’re just not working on your dreams.
So follow your dream. You know you want to. And when the going gets tough, just remember, this is your dream. Don’t stop believing.
I don’t mean to intrude, or maybe I do, because I can tell you’re unhappy with each other, and that won’t do, not in the long run, and not in the short run.
Short term, you’re angry and upset, and that’s no way to get along with one another. Long term, being hateful and mad for an extended period of time can wreak havoc on your innards. You’re literally killing yourself with all this rage.
Death is a sad fact of life, but you don’t want to rush it, and wishing death on someone is a good way to speed your own demise. All those juices you stir up hating will kill you eventually, sure as the day is long.
So what I came to say is treasure life while you have it. Try to understand people who see life differently from you — and if they hate you, don’t take it personally. They don’t understand you, either.
Life is tough and then you die — it’s the same for all of us. It’s a waste of energy to go around hating, and it’s toxic energy, too, so the main person your hate harms is your own self. Do you see how foolish anger and hate are yet?
A couple of thousand years ago, this one guy went around suggesting that the two most important things are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Actually, he didn’t say it was a suggestion, he called them commandments. It’s not always easy — we don’t always understand God, and times like that it’s hard to love him — and don’t get me started on loving your neighbors. They can act in the most peculiar ways, or they can come after you and call you names or worse. But you know? The best thing to do at times like that is to love them anyway. They may not come around, but love heals. If they refuse to accept the healing, at least you will be more healthy.
Hey, look — the word “heal” is tucked inside the word “health.” It’s pronounced differently, but “health” must be what you get when you “heal.” Cool, huh?
I wrote a poem a few years back called “Love anyway.” Basically the message was to love no matter what the world throws at you. Stuff will still hurt, but if you return hurt with hurt, it just keeps hurting, back and forth. Love works better — really.
So that’s what I came to say: Love God and love your neighbor — and if I didn’t make it clear yet, that person you call an enemy (or maybe he claims you are his enemy) — that person is a neighbor, too. It’s not a perfect world, and it would not be a perfect world even if everyone loved God and loved their neighbors, but I’m pretty confident it would be a better world, and at the very least you will feel better if you do.
I beat myself up so much for the projects I have not finished after years of fiddling around, I often downplay the fact that I have indeed completed 17 books over the years: Seven works of fiction and 10 non-fiction books are currently in print-on-demand wherever fine books are sold.
I recently did a cover re-design on my two latest full-length stories, and the proof copies arrived in the mail this week. If I may be so bold, your loved ones might be tickled to find them under the Christmas tree in December or in the pumpkin patch when the Great Pumpkin arrives at the end of October.
Dejah & Summer in the Time of Magic (ISBN 979-8-9863331-8-2) is the story of how two golden retrievers and their befuddled owner save the universe one Halloween season with the help of various magical and mystical creatures. The cover originally featured those adorable canines, and the new cover more accurately imparts the message that this book belongs in the fantasy adventure genre. Dragons tend to do that.
Ebenezer (ISBN 979-8-9863331-6-8) is a sequel of sorts to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I always have felt bad for old Mr. Scrooge, who held Christmas in his heart and was one of the good old town’s most generous denizens after one fateful night when he met three ghosts. I wrote this story to rehabilitate his reputation — he stopped being a grumpy old man that night, after all —and to show how he and his supernatural friends might have gone to work helping other souls.
You can find these books in paper and electronic formats at any online store, but I include the ISBN numbers to help you in asking your favorite local independent bookstore to order them for you. And after you’ve placed your order, look around the store to find something to read while you’re waiting for my books to arrive.
