Do You?: It’s Just About… Life.

Ask a good question. Get a great answer. It’s a simple game. The challenge is this, your answer is meaningful, but is meaningless unless you back it up. Do You? I’m trying, with all of my heart, I’m trying.

Here is what I believe is one of the great examples of an answer to that question: I’m sure a good portion of people reading this blog have answered this question at some point in their lives. I remember the question well, because it was proposed to me more than 15 years ago, months after I proposed.

“Do you take this woman… ?” I answered, “Yes, I do.” The answer was easy, the story beyond the answer is not. And with good reason, it’s not supposed to be. When you say you will commit your life to be with someone else, it is a tremendous responsibility. It is filled with more emotion, work and compromise than perhaps anything you have done in your life. But if you care, if you love, if you put in the effort, if you are willing to bend, to become more than just you and share your life in its entirety with someone you love, isn’t it worth it?  The very intersection of two lives merged is more powerful than one. Add gratitude, appreciation and love to the crossroads of that connection and the results are immeasurable.  But it’s just part of the big picture. I believe everyone should have a dream.

Do You? Do you want more? Do you look at life and feel satisfied? Do you dream of something bigger? Do you know where you are going? If so, do you have the courage to go there, are you willing to pay the price?  To not do so, to not face your fears is huge. Try this story on for size from playwright David Mamet:

“On June 5th, 1944 thousands of American paratroopers jumped into Normandy. Four men refused the jump. Can you imagine, can anyone imagine the rest of these men’s lives? Their lives, in effect, ended the moment they refused to leave the plane. As would the lives of those they could have saved. As will yours and mine, and as they do in part, if we each refuse the opportunity to change.  We stagnate and then must explain to ourselves why we don’t immerse ourselves in the mysteries of life. We all die in the end, but there’s no reason to die in the middle.”

Read those last few words again out loud, or even in your mind a few times. Nobody wants to die in the middle of life.  Author and speaker John Maxwell says it this way: “You can listen to your fears and pay with your life. Or you can pay the price of overcoming your fears… and live. It’s up to you.”

I’m taking the road less traveled. And I am hoping you would like to as well. I’m willing to help and I’m not kidding.

Look, I don’t have all the answers, I’m working on this every day and laying it all out here on the pages of this blog, it’s not an easy thing to do, to go public with my hearts desire. This blog is only part of a larger dream to be an author, but there is no overnight success, it’s many steps and hard work along the way. But nothing worthwhile in life, nothing, nothing, nothing is ever easy.  Go back to the part about sharing your life with someone. I believe it’s a perfect example.

My dream, my why, is to give back by sharing perspective, emotion, love and gratitude, whether it’s through a personal story, a personal experience, like the journey of my wife’s battle with breast cancer, or the trilogy of blogs from last weekend, as I completely and without filters, unloaded my heart during my daughter’s milestone celebration.  If I can help even one person take the journey as well, it’s worth it.  I want to inspire and motivate.

I am slowly building a team to help me fulfill my dream. Every dream needs a team, I am willing to be part of yours, if you are willing to share. A simple conversation, a simple word, one line, one book (many books), can make a huge difference. Feel free to e-mail me, use Facebook, use Twitter, call or text, my personal profile on this site has all of that information. I’m telling you I’m not kidding, this is not lip service. I don’t write what I don’t believe. If so, I am cheating you and myself.

Want to know the core of my dream? I read it earlier this week and after doing so underlined it so many times and put so many stars around it, it looks like the milky way, because it is at the center of my purpose, of what I am trying to accomplish with my dream of writing, of becoming an author and sharing my why.  It comes from author and critic John Ruskin:

“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion – all in one.”

I am thinking, working, creating a plan to bring my vision into focus, to share it in a simple way, to make it a reality, to become more. I know it sounds cliché, but I have to say it because it is true: I have a dream.

Do You?

Until next time, thanks for taking the time.

Mark