Insecure Writers Support Group - keep your dreams alive

I am privileged, on this IWSG Wednesday, to share a blog post by my sweet friend February Grace (and to help her promote her newest book, Of Stardust). When she asked what she could blog about, I suggested the subject of dreams. Her response was inspiring for me. I hope it is for you too.

(For more inspiring IWSG posts, visit the new IWSG website.)

“Dreams are sacred.”

That is the tagline, and the heart, of my new novel OF STARDUST.

It was inspired by a very deeply held belief that I have in the importance of dreams. 

Dreams are the thing that keep us going—looking ahead, thinking to a possible, better future—when things are really tough.

Whether we're suffering through illness or hard times or any other trial, the capacity to dream can give us strength and the ability to keep on fighting. I don’t want to think where I would be now without dreams that I’ve had in the past which have luckily come true (including the publication of this novel!) and I don’t want to think what shape I’d be in tomorrow if I gave up on as yet unrealized dreams I still hold dear to my heart.

Even if you have to fight for your dreams— and if you’re writer that often means struggling to find time to write between family obligations and day jobs and all of that— I encourage you wholeheartedly to hang on to that dream. Keep it alive even if you only write a few words a day.

If your dream is to one day walk in a charity marathon, get your doctor’s okay and then walk around the block. Then walk two blocks. Keep adding on.

If you’ve always wanted to learn to cook a gourmet meal, find a good cookbook, gather the ingredients, and give it a try.

Always appreciate those who support your dreams, for it is having friends and family there when a dream comes true that makes it really worth celebrating!

Finally, if your dream is just to live a calm, simple and happy life, then I urge you most of all to keep fighting for that goal. Happiness is the ultimate dream come true, and it means something different to every single being on the planet. Dream of what will make you happy, take any steps small or large you can every day in the direction of that happiness, and hold on to those dreams no matter how it seems they might never come true.

Dreams embody hope itself, and hope is the key to continuing on in the journey to create your happiest life.

Thank you to my dear friend, Michelle, for hosting me today. I leave you now with an excerpt from OF STARDUST…and the hope that you will keep your dreams alive!

~bru

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Till stood alone in the middle of the library. It hadn’t taken long for her to thank those who had assembled around her for their support. She told them as well that she needed a little time on her own to try to make sense of everything.

So they left her in peace, with the promise that all she had to do was to wish one of them present, no matter the hour, and they would appear to give her a helping hand.

She made herself some tea — the old-fashioned way — and ate the last of the now-stale cookies her mother had sent with her days before... days that seemed a lifetime away from the life she knew now.

A Fairy Godmother.

She still tried to fathom that this could possibly be true, despite the evidence she’d seen the past several days that defied any other explanation.

She sat on the floor, crossed her legs, and held the special book she’d been given. Now, in the daylight, she could truly scrutinize the cover. It was black leather, with symbols of the moon and stars emblazoned upon it. She used her ring to unlock it again. To her surprise, where the first page had been blank before, it now contained script of some kind that she could not decipher. It had a symbol drawn around it and reminded her of an ancient coat of arms. I wonder what this means...

“Says Dreams Are Sacred,” Gus’s gentle voice answered, as his head poked in the doorway. “It’s our motto, ye might say. The Fairy Godparents’ creed.”

“Ah.” Till wondered how he’d appeared out of nowhere. She didn’t recall wishing for him to do so.

“I thought ye might be hungry, so I brought some breakfast.”

“Conjured up out of nothing?” she asked.

“No. This time I used the drive-thru.”

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February Grace is a writer, artist, poet, and dreamer from Southeastern Michigan. She loves music and is also obsessed with clocks, colors, and meteor showers. OF STARDUST is her second novel.

Find her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FebruaryGrace

And Twitter @FebruaryGrace

And elsewhere online at www.februarywriter.blogspot.com