Wishing on a Star

We all have our images of who we want to be; of what we want to achieve in our lives; on how we want other people to see us and treat us. We all have grandiose dreams, ultimate fantasies, and larger-than-life goals.

And the quest to reach our highest star, or maybe even the act of simply gazing at it, carries us soaring on the winds of joy and ecstasy. It gives us this incomparable rush; it provides us with the will to continue trudging through our mediocre lives, when all we really want to do is stop in our tracks, lie down, and sleep through eternity and everything else.

But I know how dreams can destroy a person. How it can whittle away at your self-esteem until there’s nothing left. How it can drive you to the deepest trenches of despair, and God help you if you can ever find the strength to crawl back out.

Striving for something, having a dream… it requires that delicate balance. It asks us to stretch ourselves to our limits, to reach beyond our perceived weaknesses and convince ourselves that we have more to give. But we must be careful never to totally let go of everything in us. Because if our dreams suddenly dissolve into nothingness, we must never be caught flailing futilely in mid-air, scared and desperate to find something to keep us from falling into the darkness. We must always have that lifeline, to guide us safely back home.

Dreams are wonderful things, but they have the potential to kill us inside as well.