Monday, June 30, 2008

A dream that you do not fight for will haunt you for the rest of your life.
From the movie "Robots"

Sometimes it gets hard. Sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you care too much about what others think. "It would be much easier to want something normal. To want what you are supposed to want," you tell yourself. But you keep going. You keep fighting for your dream and hope that the people who love you most will understand and love you more because of it.

When I keep my eyes on my own paper, I am most at ease with the choices I have made in my life. But once in awhile I look up, or to the left, and I see what someone else is doing. And it seems smarter than what I've chosen, or at least easier. That is when I am most open to the criticism of others. When the jabs of, "Are you crazy? Why in the world would you want to run for 24 hours. There must be something wrong with you!" hurt the most.

But then my alarm goes off at 4:50 and I put on my shorts, shirt, and running shoes. I go downstairs and have a cup of coffee by myself in the quiet kitchen. I head outside into the darkness of early morning, feeling like the only person on the planet, and being okay with that. And then someone says, "Good morning," and I know they are there, the other runners. The other people with the same, but different, dreams. The people who are always waiting for me to run 6 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles. We talk about everything - our kids, our plans, our day, our frustrations, our weaknesses. And sometimes we even talk about our dreams.

We all have our own dreams, dreams that may not make sense to anyone else. Today, I hope to fight for mine. And whether I achieve them or not, I am enjoying the journey. I wish the same for you.

7 comments:

onepinkfuzzy said...

inspiring!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

When the jabs of, "Are you crazy? Why in the world would you want to run for 24 hours. There must be something wrong with you!" hurt the most.
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THis is our fuel...let this FIRE you UP, there is always and will always be in the future those that like to take us down... naysayers, time wasters, dream stealer's ...but that's not US!!!

You keep focused on WHAT inspires you and keep striving towards it...Journey on My Friend :-)

The good news is you DO get it & that's why your up at 4:30am, You Rock!!

Chisholm Deupree said...

Congrats on the news release of THE NATIONAL TEAM. I know it's no surprise, but you can be very proud of the result of the hard work and many miles.

Have fun while you're representin'

Olga said...

Dear, this is so beautifully written...softly spoken, yet so profound. I love it.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

NATIONAL TEAM FOR 2008 WORLD 24-HOUR RUN CHAMPIONSHIP

WOMEN
Connie Gardner, Medina, Ohio
Debra Horn, Shake Heights, Ohio
Jamie Donaldson, Littleton, Colorado
Carilyn Johnson, El Paso, Texas
Laura Nelson, Woodstock, Virginia
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Woooo Hoooo I just seen this on Jamie's blog...

BIG COngrats Carilyn !!! SO Awesome!!

Go USA!!

Ronda said...

Hey Caroline, I have a shirt that reads, "Dream Big"! Then under that it has a smiling skull face then reads. "Chase it".

It's inspiring for me to hear all the comments because that just shows me they aren't chasing any dream or they would understand....very sad for them.

Nice post!

Bev said...

I just saw the National Team roster. I live under a rock so I had no idea. Congratulations and I'll be cheering you on from afar. Rock it little Texas girl!