A Note to Parents

Do you have a dream in your heart? Is there something you want so much that you can’t imagine not having it? Perhaps it started out small, a glowing ember of hope. As you thought about it more and more it grew. Each daydream was a breath, blowing the embers into a small fire, then a raging inferno until the dream consumed your heart.

After all, we are people too. Despite being parents, or perhaps even more so because of being a parent, we nurture hopes and dreams in our hearts too.

Can you imagine life without your dream? What would it be like to let it go?

Can you imagine giving up your dream for someone else? Think about what it would be like to have that fire burning inside you, but putting all of your time and energy into achieving a different dream, someone else’s dream.

There are many people out there doing exactly that. Our name for them is often son, or daughter.

There are countless children out there ranging from toddlers to adults, who spend their days making their parent’s dreams come true. These children are living in a prison. It may look beautiful, but a prison it remains.

Remember the feeling you had when you thought about giving up your dream? You’re child is experiencing this feeling every day of their life. They are giving up their dreams to make yours come true.

I know you love them. I know you want a good life for them. Can you trust them to create a good life from their own dreams? Can you love them unconditionally? Do you love them enough to let go of the dream?

Then, trust yourself. Let go of your dream for your child’s life. After you do that, take a good look into your heart and find the dream for your own life. It has probably been smothered by the inferno you were nurturing for your child, but I bet the ember of your own dream is still there.

Spend some time thinking about it, blowing on the ember. Take a step toward it, do one thing that moves you closer to your dream, and watch the ember grow into a flame.

Keep thinking about it, moving toward it, fanning the flames. Soon you will have an entirely new inferno to enjoy, and it will truly be yours.