LSD

I know over the years, we have all been involved with LSD. Through different stages of life, it can cause different reactions as we age. And no, I am not drifting back to living in the 60s and 70s.

Since I got your attention about LSD, let me clarify that I am not talking about a potent hallucinogen, but the old phrase ‘Let’s Sit and Dream’. Over the stages of life, we all have times of sitting down and dreaming. Dreaming of what we want out of life.

As children, we dream of toys, Christmas and playing with our friends. As teenagers we dream of graduating, dating and of what kind of job we want as a career. As young adults we dream of meeting the right person, marriage, buying a home and having children.

As we age, we dream of paying off our mortgage, getting our kids through school, having some vacation time and looking forward to retirement so we can travel or do whatever we want. During each stage, we seem to have different kinds of dreams, but we are always dreaming of the future and looking forward.

Once we reach our 60s and retirement has become reality, we begin to dream about days gone by. We long for youth again, a second chance to make changes and do better. This kind of dreaming is not like the dreams of our youth. We start looking back rather than forward. Dreams of what we want to accomplish easily disappear because we feel we have reached the age where there is nothing left to accomplish. Even worse, we can stop dreaming all together. While we enjoy this stage of life and we are happy knowing we fulfilled many dreams during our life, we can easily stop dreaming and we can stop moving forward.

Often, those of us who are older think back over the years and dream about what might have been if we had made just one different choice in a certain situation. Have you ever just concentrated on a few decisions you made over the years and wondered what if? What if I had done this or not done that, where would I be today? It can be very mind-boggling. Those choices could be good or bad, but the fact is they are only dreams. We made our choices at the time and we are who we are today because of them. We have lived our dreams throughout life and tried to make the best choices as they came up.

We have to remember, no matter what stage of life we are in, keep dreaming. There is always more we can accomplish. Our dreams and goals change over time, but we are all here for a reason, we all have things to do, people to help and choices to make. Keep focusing on the future, do not dwell on the past, keep making and actively pursuing new goals that lie ahead. This reminds me of a Bible verse that says in part, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize…whatever that prize is to each of us. Do not give up, no not stop dreaming, keep moving forward.