"Life Is Never Easy for Those Who Dream" - Robert James Waller

My son Bo is a dreamer and has been since the day he was born. It's one of the things I most love about him. Through him, I see a world not defined by limitations but by extraordinary opportunity. His ability to dream, as well as his undying curiosity, has stirred within him a sense of passion about things my own fears would never allow me to even think about. My advice to my son has always been to go for it. Live your life. Live your dreams. You are more than capable of making those dreams happen!

As the title of this post states, however, life is never easy for those who dream but I'd like to add that it's not easy for those who stand behind the dreamer either.

I have had a sense lately that I must have missed the section in the parenting handbook where it states that we can't allow our children to reach for the stars; that by doing so would only cause them more harm than good, and that to allow our children to dream BIG is to set them up for a life of constant disappointment. Yes, I must have missed that chapter. Perhaps it was when I closed the book and redirected my attention to my then 4 year old who came into the room in an excited flourish to loudly proclaim "some day Mom, I'm going to be on television!" Yes, perhaps that's when I missed it. :-)

My son HAS dreamed the impossible dream and even if his first credited role is his last, he has lived it, and it wasn't so impossible to achieve after all. Even if the only benefit he gains from this accomplishment is the belief that he is capable of attaining the unattainable, then he is far better off than most.

To the naysayers out there, I would like to tell them this. It's never too late in one's life to dream BIG and to reignite within them their own dreams of long ago. Live your dreams and if you can't, at least be happy and encouraging to those who are doing so. Life shouldn't be so hard on the dreamer, for without them, the world would be an awfully boring place in which to live.