We’ve all heard the old adages “when life gives you lemons make lemonade” or “when one door closes another one opens.”How about “life is what you make of it?” While I do believe there is great wisdom there, and at times great comfort, I can’t help wondering, what happens to the dreams that don’t come true? I don’t mean the wishes or the wants, I mean the full blown can’t live without dreams. The career that never happened, the love that was never found, the children that were never conceived, I mean those dreams.
Where do they go? My oldest son is graduating from high school this year and is off to college in the fall. He is full of excitement and his life is full of possibilities. He and his friends have not opened up to the idea, nor should they, that things could be different than what they are planning. Even though I have seen struggles and heartbreaks and disappointment in their young lives, they are optimistic and open and ready for life.
I suspect in many ways that was true for many of us. And if things didn’t go according to plan, what happened? How did we face that? How did we make peace with what and where we are in our lives now? What do we need to do to get there if we haven’t already or we find that we have a ways to go?
While I do in fact find comfort in the idea that when one door closes anther one opens, I wonder how much time we spend on lamenting the closed door that we don’t even give ourselves the opportunity to recognize the open one let alone walk through it. I would like to believe that behind that opened door are those dreams still waiting to be realized and, as we have grown and changed, possibly so have they. If they haven’t, could we be willing to have great compassion for the losses and lovingly and respectfully let them go? And if they have changed, would we be willing to take another crack at fulfilling them?
There are ways to get there. Let’s talk about it.
Holly Yates MS, LPC : Psychotherapy and Counseling Services 1 like · 0 were here 