My eleven year old daughter Patricia is horse crazy, and that is putting it mildly. There are not many conversations between us (when it is just us because she knows that to some extent I am to blame for this horse craziness) that don't begin with, "dad, do you think that ______________ (name any one of the 5 or 6 horses at the place she rides) could ever jump 2' 6"," or something very similar to that. In fact the other day I was telling Fish (that's her nickname) that her mother used to get up and practice the piano at 5:00 am every day before school because she loved to practice. Her response? "Dad, do you think that mom liked to play the piano as much as I like to ride?" (I think you can see where this is headed) Me: "probably, why?" Fish: "I was just wondering if you could take me to the barn at 5:00 am every morning to ride?" Oops, I really stepped into that one, and still trying to find a way out.
It hasn't always been this way. In fact up until about 8 months ago I successfully held her off of riding at all. I would take her to the barn once in a while, and let her saddle up a pony or two thinking it was enough. Little did I know that seething below the surface of this calm exterior was a molten hot dream churning and bubbling through all of her thoughts and hopes. She prayed and begged and sat with a pad every night figuring out how many stalls she would have to clean each week to have a leased horse and lessons paid for. One day out of the blue she and I pulled into a barn that we didn't know anything about and started asking questions. Before I knew it we were driving to that barn on Saturday, and have been every Saturday since. The way she describes it is that her dreams have all come true. There is no denying that the power of her dreams is being manifest in the reality of her life.
So it begs the question. Do we allow the power of our dreams to create the reality that we really and truly desire? Have we stopped dreaming for fear of disappointment? Can we start dreaming again?
Here are 3 tips from the "flaming forge of life" that I hope will help us all to nurture our dreams until they become reality:
1) Dreams are in essence a visualization technique. When we dream we should see it all and feel it all as if it were real. I think that Fish spent many a night while falling asleep on the back of a horse, with the wind in her hair, and a big smile on her face and in her heart.
2) Writing things down make a connection between your heart and your brain. When we spend time to coax our dreams onto a piece of paper, our dreams become more real than ever before. I believe that the dream that Fish fed and nurtured started to take real shape when she started to write down what it would take to make that dream reality.
3) No dream is ever dead until we decide to pull the plug. A dream will remain an active force for creation until it is realized; you and only you decide when you can no longer sustain it's life. For Fish, she has been a farrier's daughter her entire life; her dream has been nurtured and fed in her heart and she never gave up even when other girls her age (whose parents had nothing to do with horses but had a few more spare greenbacks than I did) were riding just to keep their mothers happy. It is never too late for a dream.
Fish is my hero. Her example of how to dream a dream into reality will stay with me for the rest of my life. I love you Fish.
Remember that not only am I the blacksmith. You too are the blacksmith, the force for creation and change in your own life.
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