When I was one of those angsty teens with posters on the walls of my room, one of them was actually a present from my dad. It was a photo of of a sleeping kitten that looked to be smiling (even 50 years ago, LOL cats were a thing!) and the caption said, “Set aside some dreaming time.” Dad always encouraged me to do three things:
1) Read
2) Use my imagination
3) Believe I could be whoever I wanted to be
Then the Universe dropped this into my inbox…
Have you noticed, Silver, how all dreams come with built-in challenges, and all challenges come with built-in dreams?
Curious, huh?
Tallyho,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®That’s why we call both of them “gifts,” Silver; it also saves massive amounts of paper.
My dad, and his teachings, truly were gifts and I miss him every day, though he’s been gone 25 years now. Whenever I get discouraged, when the writing gets hard, and I forget to imagine and forget to dream, I need to remember this message. Dreams and challenges go hand-in-hand. So, tally-ho, readers! I’ve figured out the glitch, partially due to this revelation. So both the dream and the challenge are new words and finishing MOONSTRUCK: BETRAYAL. What dreams and challenges do you have?
Silver James 
Your dad sounds like he was a great guy. :hugs: Maybe he’ll run into my dad up there and they can go fishing.
Dreams and challenges… Right now, I’m just focused on getting Ugly and the Beast ready to send out. It’s been a dream in the making for over a year and it’s definitely been a challenge. But it’s shaping up. And then I have to finish Cinder Ugly, so it can go out into the world, too, and I can wrap Jeni’s story up.
Dad will be fly fishing somewhere, or sitting next to the stream reading. Louis L’Amour and Zana Grey. Maybe a little SciFi if something caught his eye. I’ll tell him to watch for your dad. 🙂
I hear you on the dreams and challenges. My butt is getting in gear. 3 a.m. and my brain finally aligned with Mars and crossing fingers the words flow today. I have other ideas nudging around up there than want out to play.
The drought might not be over, but a little drizzler here, a gentle rain there, and I’ll keep planting. 😉