Walking the Narrow Path

Many of us - perhaps all of us - walk the narrow path between the life our our dreams and the life we need to live in order to survive (which often involves a job we would rather not get up and go to every day). Many of us want a little more - and some even a lot more - than to merely survive!

When I was working full time as a teacher, marking papers in the evenings, I used to envy those who walked away from their job at 5 - or even more, those with the courage to step out of the workaday world - to become artists, writers or actors - jobs that usually don't have a regular salary.

I read how Stephen King, for example, worked as an English teacher to support his family, even though he wanted to be a writer (He tells his fascinating life story in his book, On Writing). He saw sadly that after teaching all day, marking till 9 or 10, attending parent-teacher conferences, staff meetings - and other events that gobbled up his after-school hours, he had no energy left for the writing. His dream of being a writer would be over if he continued to teach.

Fortunately one of the novels he had written before his teaching job sold - and he could get back to the career of his dreams.

But not all wannabe-writers succeed as spectacularly as Stephen King did. I met one who had left her government job to write full time. She spoke in glowing terms about the dream that had driven her to leave her routine day-job - but then she commented bitterly that she would be earning a lot more if she were still there. There are no guarantees when you step out to "live the dream."

I have been playing the song "I HOPE YOU DANCE" recently - as I dance around the room folding laundry or vacuuming! It is my inner prayer for myself - for my children - and for all who crave a career that satisfies.

As I look back at my own writing dream, I see that it was one of several dreams that were all important to me. My writing dream shared my life with the dreams of being a parent and putting down roots in a home surrounded by trees.

Discovering my dream - my numerous dreams, in fact - and then trying to live them - has been a narrow path with many twists and turns, and moments of self-doubt: who do I think I am that I can actually achieve this? What are my chances of success?

But we dreamers keep plugging along... The alternative - a sense of missing out on life's larger purpose - would be denying who we really are.