When we seek out our dreams, we must do battle with many elements, with many foes. During the battle, the heart must know when to defend and parry the blows of our enemies, and it must know when the time is right to strike, to swing the sword that will ultimately defeat them, and lay them by the wayside. The heart suffers during the struggle for our dreams, but ultimately, if you persevere, you will succeed - always. After the final battle, when the dream has been realised, so to do you enter into a time of tranquility and peace. You have achieved all that you set out to achieve, you have your heart's desire, you have arrived at the end of your path. You can sit down and relax, you can look back upon the trials and the tribulations, the times of sufferings, the moments when you thought you had failed, the times of victories that kept you pushing on, you see and feel the scars of battle that you know you will carry for the rest of your days, and you feel a deep satisfaction at having arrived at the place that you intended, of having achieved your dream. You will live out the rest of your days with all of this knowledge and you will be content and happy.
This is how I thought it was going to be. After I achieved my dreams, I would find peace and contentment within my heart. It is true, that I did for a short while, for a time I was happy and I did bask in the glow of my success - actually, I still do - but there is always a feeling that will not, that cannot ever go away. It sits in my heart, sometimes quietened by the joys of knowing all that I have achieved, by the flying of my soul as it soars on the wings of our successes, but the voice is never truly gone. Even in the times of great elation, I can hear its whisper of gentle urging. It tells me that we are not yet finished, that there is still more to be done. This voice speaks to me of other dreams yet to be fulfilled, of other quests that are yet to be begun, it shows to me that the path is not ended, and I hear the truth of its words, nay, I know the truth of its words. These words fall heavily, raining down like a hammer on the anvil, each one ringing out with chimes and the weight of truth.
There was a time when I would never have described myself as ambitious or driven. I was content to follow, happy to be a nameless part of the herd, lost within the safety of the many, never seeking to stand out and to be different. But I could not remain that way. Always, there was a feeling inside of me that I could, that I should, do more, that more importantly, I should be me. I struggled for many years to find my voice, to be able to stand with confidence and to show the world who I was. Eventually, I did, it was inevitable, I only needed to find the right place and to channel my energy. From that day forth, I realised that many things were achievable in life, that I could rise above the afflictions, that I could distance myself away from all that I had been and known before, that I could be my true self. With this realisation came ambition and a drive to achieve. All of the problems and the sufferings I had known for those many years and overcome, fuelled me. I knew that if I could overcome all of those things, then I could overcome anything, and so I began my journey, my quest to see just how far I could take things. I became driven to succeed in whatever I set my heart upon.
With this drive, came the realisation of my dreams. I did not look on it as such at the time, but that is exactly what it was. My drive brought to me opportunity, promotions, overseas business travel, and as each of these occurred, I thought I had reached my plateau, achieved what I had set out to achieve. My heart always had different ideas. I was happy for a short time and then I yearned for more. I knew that I needed to keep on moving forward in order to grow, I was an unstoppable snowball rolling down the mountainside.
Even now, in a different life, on a very different path, I am just the same. My heart sets itself upon an idea, a dream that I wish to bring to reality within my waking world, and as soon as the seed is sown, I am unable to shake it. Of course, I can choose to ignore it, I can turn my head away and refuse to listen to that quiet voice inside of my heart, to ignore its urges and its calls to arms. But I am unable to ignore it for long. I know that eventually, I must come back to it, to water the seed that has put out its small tendrils within the soils of my soul, that has gotten itself fixed around my heart, and I must tend to it, I must nurture it, for it is me and I am it.
You see, life is like that. The storm may pass us by but the truth is that the next one is soon to arrive. The peace and tranquility we find in between is our time for respite, a chance to recover our strength, an opportunity to internally digest and comprehend the lessons that our previous battle has shown to us, it is a time for contemplation, for recovery and it is a time to look to the future, to the next storm, the next battle that is coming. For the storm will always come and when it does, you must be ready. A heart that walks the path is a heart that can never lie dormant for long, it can never sleep. It knows that path and it wants to keep on seeking, to keep on taking that next step. And like it or not, you are going to go with it. It is the way of the dreamers. It is the way of the heart.
We, we of the path, of the dream, of the light, of the heart. We hear the call and we follow. With shield and sword do we walk to the battle, to confront our enemies. Our shield we call Faith, our sword we call Courage. We shall never truly be defeated, for we are the walkers of light, on our one true path. For we are the heartstrong, and always shall the light show us the way.
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