New Beginnings, Just When You Thought You’d Reached an End

I'm thinking about dreams... here is a piece from May I wanted to share:

Sitting here studying for finals after twenty odd years out of school, I am thinking about new beginnings. There are many women out there living wonderful lives, but in one or two personal ways may wish certain aspects of their lives were different and may wish they had accomplished a certain dream that they have not yet. New beginnings are scary, even terrifying, and our goals can seem to be so far out of reach. We can be happy in all areas in our lives if we empower ourselves to do so. Part of new beginnings sometimes needs to be letting go, which is never easy, but possible. Even when we acknowledge that something we are doing or living with (and have been for a while) are not healthy for us, do not satisfy us emotionally or physically; it still may still seem a tremendous loss to let them go. In order to begin again, we need to let go and set ourselves free to learn new information, have new experiences, heal old wounds, or even reinvent our senses of self. I assure you that upon reflection, the letting go will have been the simple part.
Recently someone asked me a question that proved to be a pivotal moment in my life. I had the answer right on the tip of my tongue, but never asked myself the question. Old dreams had long since been pushed to the outreaches of my mind as unattainable, and I had tried to give myself permission to forget them for years. What would you do with your life, if money, time, and everything else were not an issue? The answer just flew out of my mouth without a second thought. Somehow, the deep recesses of my mind had not forgotten all of my dreams. I am in college now pursuing my goal. Beginning was scary and it seemed impossible to stop the world as I had created it, for four years. Nevertheless, with a great deal of help, I am well on my way. Help seems to arrive in the strangest ways from the oddest places, once you begin. Once I began, it was as if a light had gone on inside of me. A dream I had misplaced was again at the forefront of my being, and all of my actions were now leading to the accomplishment of that dream. It is a relief, one I was not even aware I needed.
Barriers to our dreams can seem so far above us that we cannot even begin to imagine how we would start to overcome them, so we never do. We take another job, we let damaged relationships go, we let our fears rule us, or we simply stay with what we know and what is comfortable. Eventually with all of our work responsibilities and family responsibilities, our dreams sink deeper inside. It is never too late to begin to climb those barriers. After all, the higher you climb the better the view. The first step is the hardest one to take. However, I implore you to take it because the second step will be easier. The third step, however, may set you back a little and you may confront a small obstacle you never expected. Therefore, you shuffle, and the next few steps put you right back on track. Once you are in motion, take that first action towards resolution of accomplishment; I guarantee you will be unstoppable like water rolling down a hill.
Our lives are for living; this is our one great chance. Our forgotten dreams therefore, should be the basis for constructing our “To Do” lists. When my personal new beginning and my own obstacles seem insurmountable, I find myself stopping to smile and remember what a very positive person once asked me, “How do you eat an elephant?”
“One bite at a time.”
(I am not advocating the eating of elephants, just the living of dreams.)