Monday Maunder: A Dream Within a Dream

Have you ever had a dream that you wanted to become a reality?  How about a dream that once you began working towards it, that it simply was not what you thought it would be?  Or, ever had to change your dreams because life throws you curve balls?

When I was younger, I had this dream of being a woman that would break the glass ceiling in the business world.  Through education and experience, I discovered that this path in life was not meant for me.  I switched my career path to higher education and that is where I have been for more than a decade.  Over the last few months, I have begun really thinking about my dreams ... and if they agree with my career path and goals.  Should dreams and goals align?  Are dreams achievable, something to realistically work towards?  And, are they worth it in the end?

Deep thoughts for a weekly ramblings here on the blog, but it is something that has really been on my mind lately ... a LOT.  My little family has moved around numerous times over the years and now that we are potentially in a long-term home, I find myself pondering these deep thoughts more and more.  I am not getting any younger and there is still so much that I want to do with my life. I could give you the long list, a bucket list of sorts, but how does this fit into the reality of day-to-day living?

I want to believe that I can still try to make these dreams a reality, to do it ALL.  BUT, can I?  Do I really have the time or energy?  Or, should I make the time, find the energy?  I simply don't know.

I will end all this chatter now that it as clear as mud!  And instead, I will leave you with what all these ramblings makes me think of in the literary world ... one of my favorite poems from one of my favorite authors.

A Dream Within a Dream 

by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow! 

And, in parting from you now, 

Thus much let me avow — 

You are not wrong, who deem 

That my days have been a dream; 

Yet if hope has flown away 

In a night, or in a day, 

In a vision, or in none, 

Is it therefore the less gone? 

 All that we see or seem 

Is but a dream within a dream. 

I stand amid the roar 

Of a surf-tormented shore, 

And I hold within my hand 

Grains of the golden sand — 

How few! yet how they creep 

Through my fingers to the deep, 

While I weep — while I weep! 

O God! Can I not grasp 

Them with a tighter clasp? 

O God! can I not save 

One from the pitiless wave? 

Is all that we see or seem 

But a dream within a dream?

What about your dreams?  Have you seen your dreams realized?  Do you reach for your dreams?  Or, do you feel that life is really "but a dream within a dream?"