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 breaths 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 the journey and kept me on it after all these years, even on the winding 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 tell ourselves and we tell others that we never dreamed our dreams and we stay put in our lackluster lives because we lack the courage to do otherwise. Yes, sisters, it’s often lack of courage that keeps us grounded. What we fail to realize is when we don’t move, 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 weren’t brave enough to make a move. If we regret, it’s because we let fear win. Playing it safe can come with its own risks, including our sanity.

If it’s love we’re after, we’re better off jumping. 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, we are gravely mistaken.

We dream of happy marriages, and then we get divorced.

We dream of good health, and then our bodies betray us with illness.

We dream of being mothers and then our wombs remain barren.

We dream of prosperity and then we lose our jobs.

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 imagined, prayed for, or dreamed, we get to decide whether to quit or to re-imagine ourselves and try again. We get to decide whether to retreat or to keep fighting.

There is something grand about persistence.

After failure, it is often when we find our soulmate.

When we start our own company.

When we find our audience and fine tune our niche.

When we walk in our purpose.

When we realize what we’re made of.

In the still of the early morning, I’ve come to believe it is all a matter of courage.