Oh those words from waaaaayy back. Those of you who are from North of the 49th may find the phrase familiar from the Bob Homme, aka The Friendly Giant. He was the 'big guy' on CBC with a delightful show that ran from '58 to somewhere in the mid 80's. Man that was a long time ago. Lest I get into a reminiscent mood, let me change gears and indeed 'Look up...way up'.
In my life, so far, half a century and still kickin', I have always looked up. Not so much in the faith perspective, but in the pursuit of a dream. One thing we must all understand is that looking up all the time is really not a good idea. There is the real threat that keeping eyes focused on your dreams leaves you susceptible to falling into a hole in the ground that you could not see coming. There is a point I am trying to get to, but again you may have already deduced that I get a little long winded.
I have a dream, a vision if you will, to become very successful with my writing. Deep down I know that I AM successful, it's just that time has not caught up to that notion just yet. It is out there, out of reach but not out of sight. Dream my friends, have your head in the clouds but your feet on terra firm. Take each step, one at a time toward your goal but do not let it consume you. For you are all that you are. Each breath you take fills your lungs with new energy. If you are engulfed in one desire, you are an addict, not good. An addiction blinds one of everything else. It eats up the rest of your life. No, that being said, I don't think one should be less than eager and devoted to something, because life is full of lots of somethings, I am saying dream, but live.
I have been writing for close to 35 years. Some hits, a lot of misses, and very little success to date. Success measured in acquired dollars from sales, that is. I have immense success in the volume of stories and screenplays and poems that, as stated prior, are in boxes in my office. I dream of them being on the shelves of those bookstores, I really do. My biggest high would be to walk into a friends, friends house for a party and seeing my book on the coffee table. "You like this book?" I would ask. "Yeah, I love it. Have you read it?" would be their replay, and to which I would respond, "Read it? I wrote it!" Man what a rush that would be. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, success. My success is in knowing that I trapped 130,000 or 50,000 words on paper, in a cohesive order and have a story that has a beginning middle and end and has trapped a vision that, number one makes sense and number two, that would never had existed if I did not give it life.
For me, writing is an escape. I actually need something to escape from when I am ready to write. If everything is great in my life, I have nothing to escape from and thus my muse doth forsake me. I guess I have to live a tortured existence in order to be able to continue as an author. That doesn't bode well with me.
But then I look up...way up. I see the vastness of the sky and I think of all the possibilities that are all around me, us. I know that the sun is up there, even behind the clouds and will be there for a long time, and everyday is a new day. I tell my kids, that no matter how bad you messed up today, no matter how rotten your day was, the universe give you tomorrow to try and either fix it or make it better.
It's called hope. And hope is somewhere on the top rungs of that ladder that are hidden in the heavens.
So keep looking up, but watch where you are walking...dog owners can be quite derelict in their duties.
