Imagine.
When a man dares to go where few have gone, when he courageously pursues adversity in an effort to uncover his true self, the temperature shifts, the conversation is elevated and nothing stays the same. When any one of us is willing to run our own race out loud, willing, shamelessly to chase a possibility through the fire and in spite of the pain, other people get to come along for the ride.
I like to think of myself as “one of those few,” but, I have failed many times to go the distance. I have at other times declined to stay the course, discouraged and yet pretending not to be. And, I have more often than I care to admit, toyed with the prospect of surrendering and admitting to defeat.
Still,
I want to know for myself, what there is to know about the reality that exists on the other side. I want to really try one day. I want one day to fly.
And you?
Once upon a time, you might have had a dream too; you might’ve even been one of “those”, too, whose restless soul refused to be contained. Could it be you are determined still, to escape your boundaries, raise your bar and expand the world for us all? Could it be that you’ve tried and come up short a few times convinced that you might not ever want to try again.
But now,
someone, somewhere, being something and doing something big, threatens to hijack your imagination, point the way forward and ignite in you again, the desire to live beyond the daily grind—“What if?”
Possibility dictates that it must be pursued! You’ve got to pay a price for greatness. You’ve got to really chase a dream. And although there have been times when you’ve been clear “it just can’t be done”, decide this time to listen to the whisper that beckons from within:
“Yes I can. Yes you can. Yes we can.”
It reads:
To my children, who I hope become like Fletcher and go—beyond.
Love, Your Mother.
It was then and there for me, contained in that inscription on the inside flap of my very own copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, that the seed to rise above, in me, was planted. It is here and now for any one of us, the choice to start or to start all over again; to follow another man’s example in the hopes that one day we might indeed—take flight.
