Dreams

Two days ago, Jessica Watson, a 16 year old became the youngest person to sail around the world solo, nonstop and unassisted.

It took 210 days. She experienced 40-foot waves, homesickness and many people who said she’d never make it alive.

Watson sailed into Sydney harbor on Saturday to the cheers of thousands of Australian fans. Her Mom and Dad and brother were there to greet her. Her parents were criticized for allowing their young daughter to do such an extraordinary and dangerous thing.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the Associated Press covering her arrival.

“The route took Watson through some of the world's most treacherous waters, and the teen battled through monstrous storms, suffering seven knockdowns.

Watson said she had moments of doubt during those times, but generally kept her spirits up.

"Amazingly, I just enjoyed it much, much more than I ever thought I would and handled the challenges better than I thought," she told journalists. "You don't actually have a choice — you're in the middle of a storm, you're being knocked down — you can't fall apart."

But her journey was also peppered with moments of beauty. On her blog, she described stunning sunrises over glassy seas, the excitement of spotting a blue whale and the dazzling, eerie sight of a shooting star racing across the night sky above her boat.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called her a hero. Jessica said, “I’m not a hero, I’m an ordinary girl who believed in her dream.”

Bravo Jessica!

Dreams are important in this short span of life we are given. You can have a dream at seven or seventy and if you embrace your dream with intent, preparation, knowledge and acquired ability you will probably succeed and accomplish it with personal satisfaction.

Even if you don’t totally manifest or finish the dream, it doesn’t matter. The dream is always in the doing; it is never the goal.

And it doesn’t matter whether anyone else approves. Your dream is your dream. Let the skeptics critique and the non-doers belittle. It is not their dream and never will be.

Going after one’s dream crosses the barrier of practicality. It burns with the flaming passion of desire and it explores the unknown limits of spirit as it is housed in this form called life.