Live the Dream--No Regrets!

I recently read a story about an 87 year old grandma who received her college diploma; she died the next week. But the point of the story wasn’t her death—it was her life. She made the choice to get her college education even though she was nearly 70 years older than most of the students she attended classes with. But granny made such an impact on those young people that over 2000 of them attended her funeral. She was inspirational and a truly loved woman.

I want to live like that—not the education part, because I already have a degree—but I want to impact the lives of others. I want people to remember me for the things I stand for and for my bravery to get myself heard. I want to be known as a person with good things to say—things that are worth listening to.

EF Hutton used to have a commercial that basically reiterated this: “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” Dale Chihuly is a glass artist with a 35 year career known world-wide for his magnificent creations with blown glass. But his first artistic endeavors were tapestries—he had to branch out and dream of something greater and more magnificent. Without following through with his dreams, the world would be minus his amazing sculptures and vessels. Chihuly created the beautiful ceiling glass exhibit at the Bellagio in Vegas that is pictured with this blog.

I’m not a great money guy, not someone with political aspirations, nor do I necessarily desire fame and fortune equal to the legacy of Chihuly. I am a Christian woman who likes to write stories about the good life that comes from loving God. That isn’t to say that my characters never experience strife and frustrations—they do. But with prayer and forgiveness, they go on and usually finish with a happy ending.

Oh, I know, I could be criticized by nay-sayers—life doesn’t always turn out rosy even for Christians. But I do believe that the journey of life is more meaningful and enjoyable if you have the faith; you have to believe in someone or something besides yourself. Let it be God. Believe and obey. Pray and dream big. Get out there in the world and make your dreams come true. Today, I am living my dream-come-true—I am a published author (and happily married to my high-school sweetheart).

I’ve found that writing fiction is an adventure in itself. I do enough research to make things believable, but I’m not tied down to facts and figures—I have leniency to create new places, new plots, new people with fascinating lives. I dream about a certain scenario, and from that I start plotting and positioning, trying to give the characters something exciting or awe-inspiring to do.

I think it’s fun to be challenged, given random topics and to create a short story. In fact, I’m going to try something—bear with me.

I randomly searched place, person, and event on my search engine, and these are the first hits: apartment, criminal, TV show. In just a short time now, I challenge you to come up with a plot for a book of fiction.

How about this: Eliza hadn’t intended to become a criminal. She had innocently been watching a TV program in her apartment one minute, and in just a few shakes of a cat’s tail, she became wanted by the law. The cat in question—Toby, her big black tomcat—had literally shaken his tail in fear when she had answered the knock on the door.
Eliza had looked through the peep hole in the door as she usually did. The face that looked back belonged to her boyfriend, Stewart. But when she opened the door, she got the surprise of her lifetime. Stewart’s evil twin, Swenson, was at the door and holding a gun pointed at her. He apparently was unaware of her recent survival training class. Eliza quickly overpowered Swenson and when the shot rang out, it was Swenson’s blood that spilled.

Frightened of the consequences, she quickly threw a few things in her large designer handbag, scooped up Toby in his carrier, and ran for her car. Not sure of why she hadn’t simply called the cops, Eliza drove quickly away….

Take it from there—that was just my quick story line using those parameters. My point is—anyone with an imagination can put together a story. My recent success with publishing five novels has taught me that with a good deal of tenacity and sticktoitiveness I was able to achieve a dream come true. It didn’t happen just because I thought about it or considered it—I actually put the words into a book format and submitted it to a publisher.

Whatever your dream is, only you can make the first steps to making it come true. Perhaps your dream is to sail around the world…if so, you’d better start taking sailing lessons. If you are an 87 year old granny and want to go to college, the first step is to enroll. If you are a fifty year old who wants to be a writer—do what I did. Whatever your dream is (fill in the blank)_______–you must decide how to make it happen. And go for it. Grow up, find opportunities, make changes; don’t have regrets. The majority of regrets are for things that you failed to do, not for things that you tried. Attempts at making a dream come true will probably result in either success or failure, but the lack of trying will only bring about regrets.