Into the *deep* end

Sometime last year overseas I had a moment when I realised, although I may have realised it before, that life is really really short. Now this kind of stuff always comes out cornier than it should do - when in actual fact it really isn't at all. I don't know how to put this at all, but somehow being on my own and seeing things I never really thought I would see gave me a completely different perspective on life. It opened my eyes to how much there is out there to see and do, and how many opportunities there actually are if you allow yourself to take them on. So when I came accross these words, they were a big inspiration to carry on dreaming, no matter how big the dreams.

Don't undermine your worth by comparing
yourself with others.
It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don't set your goals by what other people
deem important.

Only you know what is best for you.
Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as you would your life, for without them
life is meaningless.

Don't let your life slip through your fingers
by living in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time,
you live all the days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other.
Don't be afraid to encounter risks.

It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find.
The quickest way to receive love is to give love.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;
and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don't dismiss your dreams.



**To be without dreams is to be without hope;
to be without hope is to be without purpose.
Don't run through life so fast that you forget
not only where you've been, but also where you're going.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored
each step of the way.**

One Republic once sang, "I'm dreaming out loud, I'm dreaming out loud - and all at once its so familiar to see". I reckon once you start putting your dreams into action, and dream out loud - everything you once thought you could do will actually become a reality. William Blake speaks of the literal dreams here, and although that isn't what I am rambling about - I really like this poem;

A Dream

Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my Angel-guarded bed,
That an Emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, 'wilder'd, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangled spray,
All heart-broken I heard her say:

``O, my children! do they cry?
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see:
Now return and weep for me.''

Pitying, I drop'd a tear;
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied: ``What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

`I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home.''