Begin

"Don't be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin."

I received an e-mail tonight from a dear friend. It was one of those chain e-mails that contains a pretty picture and some inspirational saying that is meant to inspire or provoke thought or give you warm fuzzies for the sender. All of that happened to me. It was a beautiful picture. And the little story was effective enough. The quote at the end is the quote that I led this entry with -- "Don't be afraid that your life will end/be afraid that it will never begin." That is the sum of why I am doing this.

My children are growing up. They are becoming more independent every day. My daughter is working and my son is getting smarter all the time. I see them growing into productive citizens. I see them following their dreams. I just thought I would start to follow mine. To quote Goethe, "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. ."

My dream was to be a writer. So here I am. I have had millions of thoughts over the years. Most of those we won't talk about here. We can forget them. But a great many of them define who I am as a person today. I still have ideas for books, for novels, and I write notes everyday for poems that never seem to go anywhere but what I really want to do is be a columnist. To have a weekly column in a newspaper or magazine would be sooo cool. So I am here. Plugging away. Maybe some day I will get lucky, or, again, as I said in an earlier post, I am just here creating my own luck.

So, thank you to all who come here to read these words. For every new tick on the tally, I find encouragement. You are helping someone follow his dream. You are helping me down the road of life. We will see where this all leads. Be bold in your lives. Follow your dream.

D.