Dreaming the Dream!

Guest Blogger: Robin from Your Daily Dose

**I am a follower of Robin's blog "Your Daily Dose" - she is an excellent writer and always full of excellent advice and perspective. Enjoy her post!

I am fairly new to Nicole's blog. I have really enjoyed the word smackdown that she has had going with her sister. I can also appreciate her not wanting to be wedged into a corner, in terms of her subject matter.

 Ironically, I read somewhere, not so long ago, that the most successful blogs were themed blogs. In other words, readers liked knowing, more or less, what they were getting each day.

I remember letting out this huge sigh of disappointment when I read that, because my blog will never be that. I pretty much roll with whatever is on my mind. However, I do have themed days. For instance, on Thursday I have HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY. I spend the week taking notes on what all of my readers are writing, trolling youtube, and then I dedicate video footage to blog friends. It's like a big party. Sort of. It's lots of fun.


On Saturdays, which are really slow here in blogland, I have INSPIRATIONAL SONG SATURDAY. That is me choosing a song/video that is inspirational to me in that moment. And then I pick a singer or band from the 80s that rocked MTV. I have to be honest here. I don't look this stuff up (mostly). I just tell it like I remember it. There were some really successful bands that used MTV for all it was worth. Every song had an equally interesting and awesome video. And there were other successful bands that just recorded themselves playing said song in concert. Was the song great? Yeah. Was the video awesome? No. In other words, not everyone knew how to rock MTV. Is this important in the whole scheme of life? Not really. Is it fun? You betcha. MTV will never be the same again.


I am about to embark on this 30 Day Letter writing thing that another blog friend is doing. She is almost a week into it already. I have been delayed by all of my other "stuff." However, I am committed and I will do it. In fact, by the time you read this, I probably will have started.

I suppose I should tell you just a little bit about myself. I was married for three years. That was a bad decision for me. However, if I hadn't been married to him. I call him The Operator on my blog than we never would have gotten custody of his kids, C-Man and H-Girl, from his ex-wife. The ex-wife is no prize, but her husband was physically abusing her, and he was just starting in on the kids. They were just turning 5 and 4, respectively. He would squeeze their heads until they cried. (Yeah, her husband was a real piece of work.) Honestly, I didn't think we would get custody. We told his ex that if she would just divorce the man who was abusing her she could keep the kids. We wouldn't take it any further. She wouldn't do it. So, we took it further. She never even came to court.


Unfortunately, The Operator wasn't much of a prize, either. He wasn't physically abusive. However, he was a verbal abuser. And those kids were so damaged. I made it my mission to fix their world no matter what. And I did a pretty darn good job. I lived with a migraine that started a month after they moved in until... well, I still have it. That was January 2003. But, the kids are so much better. C-Man is so smart and going to a magnet school. All of that rage he was filled with when he moved in is just gone. He is now a loving little boy. H-Girl used to know that it was her dad's fault that we got divorced, and it wasn't because I told her. She would make up songs. I knew that she knew from her songs. However, now I think she blames me for abandoning her to living with her dad. It doesn't matter that I tried to get her dad to let her live with me even when I was still really too sick to take care of her. All she can see is her current reality. And she is now a tween and acting like it.


As for my health, it has been a bad to worse situation. Long story short. I sold my house in 2006. Moved in with my mom and stepdad in FL at that time. We all moved back to GA (where The Operator and the kids are) in July 2009. Had an extremely bad allergic reaction nuking my immune system. Everything got worse. Migraines got worse. Chronic fatigue got worse. It brought fibromyalgia. Showing symptoms of unidentifiable things, likely autoimmune diseases. So, I have applied for SSD and declared bankruptcy. Yeah, things haven't been so great since the move.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed and there was a feeling or something inside of you saying that you were supposed to be doing Something? The thing was that this Something was so far beyond where you felt capable that it just felt impossible? I suppose maybe it was what Moses felt like when God told him to free all of those slaves. His answer back must have been something like, "You have got to be freaking kidding me. I am one person. One. I have a pretty good life right now and you want me to upset my apple cart and free some slaves so that we can go tromping across the desert and probably die? Please tell me that you have written down a plan and are sending that by airmail." I know that isn't how The Bible tells it, but I know that they left stuff out. For instance, I don't recall one instance of someone needing to use the restroom during those 40 years. Now, you can't tell me that there wasn't someone every half hour that had to go pee. And someone else complaining that they should have went when so-and-so went the last time everyone stopped. I mean, get real.


Anyone who has ever achieved anything has had two things happen: 1) They have failed over and over again. 2) They have gotten back up and continued to try. That is it. They don't quit when most people do. That is the only thing that separates the Michael Jordans from the Bill Parkmans. (I really hope that there isn't an NBA player out there by the name of Bill Parkman or my point just got lost. I don't follow basketball.) So, why did they keep getting up? I have to believe that it was faith. They had faith in themselves and their ability to succeed. And maybe they had a feeling. Something was pushing them. So, they got up and kept trying.

I have this feeling pushing at me. Right now, I feel so far from capable of achieving it, that it makes me want to scream. But the feeling remains. I read Nicole's post on visualization, and that is something else that I believe has real power. That is faith in action. That is faith the way that God meant it. So, I am spending more and more of my time picturing my idea as a reality, and not just a flicker of an idea. I know that the idea will come to fruition in its own time. And I am okay with that. (That is actually me.)


And, so I say to you, what feelings have you harbored? What dreams have you felt tugging at your soul? Did they seem too big? Too out of reach? Too far-fetched? Are they still there trying to get your attention? If so, breathe them in and listen. They are there for a reason. One person can change the world. It has happened. It will happen again. It will be the person who keeps getting up. If you have faith, that person will be you.

Visit Robin at - http://yourdailydose-robin.blogspot.com/