By Dawn Onley

The beauty of the early morning is in the sounds of the wind rippling through the trees, the hum of the space heater and the rhythmic breathing of the babies as they sleep.

It’s the perfect backdrop for which I whisper thank you to my creator. God knew my silent prayers and steadied my anxious heart. He beckoned me to take this journey and kept me on it after all these years, even on the meandering roads and dead end streets.

As I ponder this life, I find it amazing how our dreams really do come true in ways that are incalculable and astounding, if we have the courage to act. With dreams, it’s safer to focus on the risks. It’s easier to talk ourselves down when we consider the financial aspects, or the potential to fail, or succeed, or the great unknown, or the changes we have to make, or the sacrifices, or …

We say we don’t have a clue what steps we should take, but this isn’t the real reason we don’t go after our dreams. We stay put in our lackluster lives because we lack the courage to do otherwise. We don’t move so our indecision chooses our way forward. Years later, when we pull back the layers of regret, usually we’ll find what really kept us stagnant was that we were scared to try. If we regret, it’s because we let fear win.

However, playing it safe can come with its own risks, including our sanity. We’re better off jumping – in love as in life. Being vulnerable. Risking everything.

Dreams are not the stuff of fairytales and feathers, despite the Disney depictions. This dream business can leave us shaken to our core. If we think we can just dip our toes into the dream pool and magically watch our hopes unfold without a full-blown swim that leaves every muscle in our bodies tired and aching, and at times leaves us struggling to stay above water, we are gravely mistaken.

• We dream of happy marriages, and then we get divorced.
• We dream of good health, and then our bodies battle illness.
• We dream of being mothers and then we conceive and miscarry.
• We dream of prosperity and then we go bankrupt.
• We dream of success by our own standards and then we fail by them.

OUR DREAMS COST US EVERYTHING WE’VE GOT!!!

If they fail to materialize the way we hoped and prayed for, we get to choose whether to quit or to re-imagine our dreams and ourselves. We get to keep trying. God wants to give us the desires of our heart. But we must keep the faith.

• We may find our soulmate.
• We may be blessed with children.
• We may buy a house.
• We may start our own business.
• We may finish the race we started, on better terms.
• We may find our calling and walk in our purpose.
• We may win our battles.

If we have the courage to risk being vulnerable.

In the still of the early morning, I realize this is what dreams are made of. The indomitable will to succeed.