Reach for the Stars

The chill in the air is gone. Leaves are returning to the branches as the days lengthen. A fine yellow haze of pollen tinges the world yellow. Spring in North Carolina is often a time associated with renewal, hope, and cleaning. It is one of my favorite seasons of the year. As Old Man Winter gives way (sometimes stubbornly) to Spring, the world once dormant comes alive again. Flowers burst from barren plots of dirt. Forlorn branches now team with color and life. It is a time of rebirth, an eruption of color, a loud raucous statement that life is a joy. All around us creation is flourishing, this is the Dream season.

Ok, that is overstating it a bit, we don’t need a season, or a time or, a place to dream. For me though, finally getting out of the house and back into the hills around North Carolina triggers something special inside of me. A yearning, a passion, a drive. As life recreates itself all around me, I too am inspired to draw, write, sing, and dance. It is a special time of the year.

Why do we dream though? What is it inside of us that causes us to look to the stars above and imagine new planets? What is it about us that makes us strive for the impossible, the next great thing? Perhaps it is a human desire for conquest, to be the first, to be the one who dares the most. Maybe, like many theologians believe, we have a God-shaped hole that we are trying to fill. Perhaps the artist’s paintbrush is a dim reflection of the creative impulses of the God that created her. Maybe our souls are simply stirred by random chance, a stray synapse or a surge of endorphins? Maybe we just want to be participants in the world around us, or perhaps it is the opposite as the writer conjures worlds not her own?

In all my many years of searching, I cannot say what makes us climb mountains, or dive to the ocean depths, or dare to fly like the birds. All I can say is that we are better off thanks to those willing to imagine just a bit bigger, dream just a bit brighter, than everyone else. Painters who envisioned a world not as it was, but brighter, bolder, softer. Writers who spilled their imaginations onto the page, a flood of ideas and imagination to sweep away readers to far off places. Thinkers and engineers unwilling to let the worlds problems solve themselves. Dreamers who stared up at the stars and dared to reach out and touch them. I believe this urge, to dream, is in all of us. We have just grown used to not listening to them, drowning out our dreams with a deluge of excuses for why we cannot, must not, follow our dreams. We have become accustomed to keeping our feet on the ground. We have stripped our dreams of their wings so they can no longer fly. We have tied them down with worry and responsibilities. We have ignored them in favor of watching the latest movie or television show.

It is spring, a season of renewal and hope and creativity. All of you have a dream inside, it’s still there if you are willing to listen. Your dream can still be accomplished if you are brave enough to chase it. You can stand up right now, today, and you can chase your dreams. You have it in you to do anything. You can touch the stars, you can paint, write, dance, sing, you can start creating something new today, right now. But only if you are willing to do what it takes to see it through. Every Spring the world around us blossoms anew, meanwhile our dreams grow colder, they gather more dust and they slowly fade away. Rise dreamers, the time for sleeping is over, the time for chasing your dreams is right now. There is no better time to reach for your dreams than the right now. Rise, and reach for the stars.