Tread Softly Because You Tread On My Dreams

We all have a dream. Maybe even more than one. It’s bright, beautiful, fragile and precious. A dream that calls us to go out there and do amazing things. But it takes a lot of courage to share that dream with the world, to write that book, to make that music, draw that picture, create that thing that you dream about and long to do. Our dreams are magic, shining with hope and wide eyed wonder. We present them to the world with outstretched hands.

And then someone treads on them.

Usually, it’s not even intentional. It’s in a careless word, a throwaway phrase. ‘There’s no money in that’. ‘No one reads any more’. ‘How are you going to make a career out of that?’ Words that slip off the tongue smooth as oil, crushing our dreams, dimming the light somewhat. Doubts creep in around the edges. Maybe they’re right. Why are we bothering with this anyway? What if it doesn’t work, if people don’t like it, if we’re wasting all our time on something that will never see fruition? What if we never succeed?

Dreams are such fragile things.

We withdraw, hiding our dreams. They’re beautiful, but why should we share them and risk the slings and arrows of people who don’t believe in what we’re doing, what we’re creating? Why risk that dream being tarnished, risk being disillusioned, when you can keep it to yourself, perfect and whole in your imagination?

Because that’s not what dreams are for.

Dreams are fragile and bright and beautiful. But they are restless creatures. They drive us with a burning passion. If they didn’t, they would had faded a long time ago. Dreams are made to be followed. They urge us to take risks. We might fail. The naysayers might be right. But, then again, we might succeed. And oh what beautiful things might come if we dare to follow our dream.

Everyone has something to share with the world. Everyone has a dream to follow Judgement hurts. Words have a power people don’t realise. How many dreams have been crushed, lost because of harsh words and cold judgement? But we can’t let that stop us. Words hurt. But the judgement of others isn’t what decides whether we succeed or not. The only person who can decide that is ourselves. If you try, you may fail, but if you never try then you’ll never give yourself even the chance to succeed.

Every harsh word, every judgement of another’s dream is a blow. It dims the dream a little more each time, tarnishes the shine. But if no one dreams, no one dares to put themselves out there, to take a risk, to open their hearts to the world and create, to follow their dreams, no matter how impractical, where will beauty, magic, unique ideas and light come from? Dreams are impractical. But dreams have power. Follow your dreams. And tread softly. Because each of us treads on the dreams of other. And dreams are magic.

The title of this blog post comes from a beautiful short poem by W.B. Yeats called ‘The Clothes of Heaven’ which I highly recommend you check out. You can find the poem HERE.