On The Edge of a Broken Dream

Dear Steemians, what will you do if you found yourself on the edge of a broken dream?

Are you living your dream, then how do you think people who find themselves on the edge of a broken dream should react?

For the umpteenth time, I was watching one of my all-time favourite movies; The Man in the Iron Mask, a 1998 British/American historical action film written, produced and directed by Randall Wallace when for the first time, I had a fleeting glimpse of the words, “edge of a broken dream”.

I do not know for what reason these written words were allowed a spotlight even if very brief, I may have to find that out but they struck a chord in me and this article is the result of its resonance. Too likely a completely different decoding of the words compared to what it stood for in the film.

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A Broken Dream

Dream is one of those words that have a variety of meanings hence the need to let you know which of the ‘dreams’ I now refer to.

Do you remember these famous words?

I HAVE A DREAM.

                            - Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you do, then you know the dream I mean is that which refers to _a cherished aspiration or ambition.

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IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN DO IT.

                                - Walt Disney

Walt Disney certainly made achieving our every dream seem like a walk in the park but one has to ask, is it really as simple as just dreaming?

Some people fail to achieve their dreams even with the right mix of the essential ingredients like determination, vision, consistency, passion and hard work.

Blame it on life? Some persons do. Like we are often quick to chant; ’life is not fair’.

True, life does not always reward hard work accordingly or give expected rewards as it should even after hard work has been put in. So, dreams end up unrealized; broken.

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On the Edge of a Broken Dream

Imagine you had set a twenty-year goal for yourself you have been working hard at achieving but every time you take that evaluation check, you find yourself less than a step forward from where you had begun or to put it better, a very far distance from where you want to be.

Of course, the days do not expand to having twenty-five hours for your sake neither do they wait for you and so you wake up years later to realize it is the last day of the twentieth year and you are far from being where you had planned to be; a broken dream, unrealized and still no more than just a fantasy.

This leads me to the big question; what do you do when you find yourself on that edge of a broken dream?

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What Do You Do When You Find Yourself on the Edge of a Broken Dream?

Have you ever stood dangerously close to the edge of a high mountain or on the rooftop of a really tall building? If you have then you know that there are two ways things could go.

• You take a fall you will very likely not survive; or

• You draw back to safety, and go the other way.

Let’s get back to talking dreams.

What do you do when you find yourself on the edge of a broken dream? The way I see it, you have two options.

• Allow yourself fall off that edge into oblivion; or

• Remember that the earth’s shape is best described as spheroid, meaning that there are many ways to revolve without falling off.

There are many who for the reason of an unfulfilled dream have fallen off this figurative edge; some begin to live life without purpose, some decide they just cannot get up anymore and of course, there are those who go the extreme mile of literally ending their lives.

All men do not dream equal. Depending on how much may have gone into these unrealized dreams, the divers decide to take the plunge into oblivion, bury their heads deep in failure and never rise again.

To what end? Well, what other end could there be? They already ended it.

So it ends there for them. A ’fool-stop’.

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On the other hand, the right hand side if you may, are those who are fortunate enough to realize that an unfulfilled dream does not necessarily mean an unfulfilled life.

What do these ones do? They turn the page of the figurative book that is life.

They make a U-turn or return through another route. ’Another route’ used here means that they find another dream or reason to go on.

Does this mean that they will not meet obstacles or constraints on this new course? No, it does not. There may be even more constraints this time BUT they press on.

Is age now against them? They find a way to make their mark despite age constraints, perhaps choosing to affect the lives of younger generations by teaching them all that they have learnt during their own life’s journey.

Will they find another dream? Maybe they will or perhaps they won’t but did they bounce back from the edge? They sure did.

Will they be successful on their second and maybe third trips? Well, I have no sure way of knowing that but I sure hope that they are.

Will they leave their names on the sands of time? I do not know, they may or may not. There are higher chances they would leave footprints in the lives of people they encounter.

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What then do I know? Not so much obviously but these I know.

• An unfulfilled dream does not and should not translate to an unfulfilled life.

• Life is hope. When there is life, there is hope.

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Images were obtained from Pixabay

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Original work authored by @royalrose