It’s Also National Catherine Day, Yay!
Today, like every other day, can give us a reason to celebrate, that how #CelebrateEveryDay came to be. It is Make Your Dreams Come True Day today for the 13th of January. And boy, oh boy, is this a holiday that’s relevant to hikers. What a great idea for a ‘holiday’!
Back when I was in high school, I used to say that I could find inspiration in anything, because we were constantly writing for classes, and our topic choices weren’t much to choose from. Have you ever written an essay on fluoridation of our drinking water? No? I have.
For a final one year, I had to write a paper on a hypothetical question: If all the books in the world were going to be destroyed, and you could only save a single book, what one book would you save? Ya, go to town on that one, there will be a five page essay due on Monday.
Anyway, this is a post about dreams…
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
Oscar Wilde
How to Make Your Dreams Come True…
But it’s all right now
Ricky Nelson – Garden Party
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
What are your dreams?
Mine are adventures in National Parks, National Monuments, and National Forests, not to take anything away from State Parks and State Forests, those are all good too.
My first love was the outdoors, and that’s never changed. I’ve never felt so much like myself, as when I’m in nature. And I’ve also always been fascinated by natural history. My test scores in the sciences were always thru the roof, that’s really what got me into MENSA back when I was a part of the group.
I have no idea what your dreams are, so I can’t advise you on specifics. But, I can give a bit of generalized advice based on what I’ve learned.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
A One Track Mind – Making Your Dreams Come True
Nothing happens unless first we dream.
Carl Sandburg
Fulfilling dreams can require razor sharp focus, my Mom always said I had a “one track mind”. When I wanted something I wanted it with all my heart, to the point of excluding other things considered to be a normal part of life. Sacrifices had to be made, and I had decided where I’d make them, and nobody could convince me otherwise.
I probably sound like a pain in the ass to you now. I know my parents always said I was a pain in their ass, I heard that with regularity. But, I certainly never intended to cause pain to their posteriors, I was just me. And that’s right at the heart of my advice, become who your are instead of who you think others want you to be.
There are tremendous pressures to conform, I know, oh God do I know… But comforming is far more likely to get you someone else’s dream than your own. I tried that for a while, the taste of victory for helping to fulfil another’s dream is quite different, it’s not bitter, but it sure isn’t sweet either…
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Langston Hughes
Dreams and Fears
Perhaps life is just that… a dream and a fear.
Joseph Conrad
Then there are the times where dreams coalesce into fears, and your fears become dreams. The two are closely related, fears and dreams. My dreams are other’s fears, and their dreams may be my fears, it has to be that way.
I’ll never forget describing backpacking to a co-worker in 1989, as I was just getting started as a community organizer. They were horrified, appalled, aghast at what I did for recreation. Why the hell would anyone want to stress and strain like that for vacation? Did I really sleep on the ground? Wasn’t I afraid of snakes? What about bears? Didn’t I miss the creature comforts of home?
The answers to those and other pressing questions are: Because, Yes, Yes, Fuck Yes, and No.
No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.
Jesse Jackson
Answers – We just want the answers…
I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.
Ferdinand Porsche
Didn’t I miss the creature comforts of home? – I’m not sure I missed home at all when I was backpacking, I mean when I’m off backpacking I’m not thinking of home at all, but when I was at home I was certainly thinking of backpacking.
Wasn’t I afraid of snakes? What about bears? Yes and Yes. One reason I chose Isle Royale as an early backpacking destination was it’s lack of snakes. I hiked thru bog water up to my waist in a couple of spots, so snakes would have made that more challenging still. I’ve slept in bear country pretty soundly, but also jumped (with a full pack on) when I saw a porcupine thru dim light in overgrown woods, thinking at first that it was a bear cub.
I’m not really afraid of black bears, I just have a healthy respect for the destruction they can cause. The night I thought I heard a bear in my food I jumped out of bed banging pots and screaming. My partner, the aforementioned ex-wife #2, thought I was crazy. My bottom line, I was more afraid of not having any food for three days than I was of Yogi. BTW – I do think he wanted a picnic basket! Monster was having none of that…
Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.
Mick Jagger
Making Your Dreams Come True
Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
Black Elk
I believe that it takes razor focus to make dreams come true. That’s what works for me, it may or may not be what works for you, dreams are highly personal things.
Coming from a lower middle class background, I didn’t have the same hopes and dreams as my upper income classmates. One of them drove a Porsche sports car to school occasionally, I drove a 14 year old Plymouth Fury called the Gray Ghost.
With that sort of background, I always felt like the sacrifices my family would be forced to make in order for me to hike a long trail were too big a burden. That’s no longer the case, girl supports chasing dreams, she has actively encouraged me to “go for it”.
Hold on to your dreams. It’s been my desire to hike a long trail since I was in my late teens. It may sound to you like I am exceptionally stubborn, because the dreams are pretty much the same today as they were 40 years ago. I have changed, but the dreams have not.
The thinking here is you are never too old to chase your dreams, you are never too old to make your dreams come true.
Well the preacher kept right on saying that all I had to do was send
Rolling Stones
Ten dollars to the church of the Sacred Bleeding Heart Of Jesus
Located somewhere in Los Angeles, California
And next week they’d say my prayer on the radio
And all my dreams would come true
