no milk today

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Anatole France, dreams, hopes, hopes and dreams, miscellaneous, music, quotes, random, songs

No milk today, which means no porridge and that means not a very happy start to this cold morning. It may not be the end of all my hopes and dreams as in that famous Herman Hermits song but it doesn’t make the day look too promising either.

As I rummaged around for something to eat and then stood waiting for a slightly stale bagel to pop out of my toaster my mind pondered what hopes and dreams I do have for the day. Nothing as big as saving the world, finding the cure for cancer or campaigning for world peace seem to be on the top of my list, but the hope that I will find the time to buy milk does seem to outrank everything else, closely followed by the dream of a little more sleep.

Of course I hope that my students will learn something today, that what I have to say sticks and that maybe, just maybe it may change their future, get them that job them hope for, spark an idea for a future they dream about or even just help them pass the course, the year, their degree.

My bigger hopes and dreams seem to be on the back burner for the day, patiently waiting for me to find a little bit more time to pursue them, but constantly reminding me with fleeting ideas and nagging thoughts that they are there and won’t be forgotten. After all what would we be without dreams that make us aspire and hopes that drive us on? As the Parisian noble prize winner, journalist and poet Anatole France once said so well:

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream: not only plan but also believe

So I will plan to go to the shops and believe I will find the time and tomorrow my day will start with hot porridge again, a dream I know I can achieve today, making everything else seem  little bit more possible.

 

impossible possibilities

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cereal boxes, desires, dreams, Elvis, Elvis Presley, hopes, impossible, Journalist, miscellaneous, pencil pen, possibilities, random, singer, thoughs

When I was small, really small maybe four or five I wanted to be Elvis Presley, not be like him but be him. I loved him so much and could sing all his songs off by heart, I even tried to perfect the lip curl, the hip bumps and manly swagger. All to no effect as my blond-hair-blue-eyed-curly-haired-cuteness always overruled my imperfect Elvis imitation.

But then so did my desire to be a journalist, another dream of mine since the age of four, I have no idea if I thought I could be Elvis the singing reporter or if I was going to lead a double life, writer by day Elvis by night. Anyway, I use to pull up my miniature chair and table to sit in front of the telly and write down what the news was telling me, even though I couldn’t write and understood very little of what was being said. In crafts I would turn cereal boxes into odd looking typewriters and spend hours upon hours taking notes in squiggly hand writing that no one could read, not even me.

I also wanted to have dimples, so I sat for hours in class pushing the pointy end of a pencil, pen or even ruler into my cheeks in the complete and utter belief that one day the indent would stay. I would have been happy with just one but all I ended up with was sore, stained cheeks, but surprisingly no lead poisoning.

Shirley Temple was another idol of mine. I thought that if she could make it as a star so could I. It never occurred to me that she had been at her peak in the 30s and 40s and that she lived in Hollywood. I really believed that if I sat on the swing in our back-garden in Dublin and sang at the top of my voice an agent would discover me and I would be the next singing and dancing six-year-old it-girl.

I never became Elvis or a new Miss Temple, I really don’t sing that well, I still don’t have dimples and a star is only something I see at night and sadly my handwriting hasn’t really improved much either. Today my dreams have changed although being a journalist  and working in the media is the one that has always stayed and I’ve pursued with varying degrees of success.

But when I look back on what I use to believe was possible and what impossibilities I have at times overcome I think is is well worth believing in the impossible and make it possible, dreaming big and defying impossible possibilities.