Category: Following your Dreams

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The Fear Factor

“When I hear people talk about a fear of failing, I get so tired. You think you’re afraid of failing, but in fact you’re doing it now. Let’s talk about your fear of succeeding.”
-Gordon Hays 2016

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Reaching Toward Pluto

“Nothing will be impossible for you.” -Matthew 17:20 NIV

Dear Reader, have you been following the journey of the New Horizons space probe to Pluto? This may seem like an unlikely subject for my blog, but I am fascinated by the beautiful metaphor on faith and trust that has unfolded in this particular NASA mission.

Before launching in 2006 under the guiding principle of “shedding light on frontier worlds,” New Horizons faced considerable setbacks and opposition. When viewing the images being sent to us here on Earth from the remarkable nine and a half year, thirty billion mile journey to Pluto, it is important to note that the New Horizons project was once cancelled. After being launched, aimed towards a goal, Pluto, New Horizons’ main focus was discounted and demoted to a dwarf planet. Every new object discovered along New Horizons’ path needed to be overcome as a threat to the probe. And, according to an article in the July 15, 2015 USA Today, “it would take only a speck of dust the size of a grain of rice to mortally wound the spacecraft.”

Hidden among the New Horizons project is a beautiful metaphor for our own lives. Despite all the setbacks, obstacles and perceived failures New Horizons reached its’ goal. The team behind the project spent years engineering and calculating, and yet ultimately had to let go, and send out this valuable space probe into the unknown, trusting for nine and a half years and thirty billion miles that a speck of dust would not be the end of the mission. That is the essence of faith. That is the definition of surrendering to the unknown. New Horizons is pioneering into once uncharted territory, revealing a mystery in the far reaches of the unknown.

I look at my life now, as I venture into my own unknown. It is perhaps the most difficult and beautiful time in my life thus far. But, I can have faith too that even in the vastness of the unknown, something wonderful will be discovered. I hope the same for you.

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The Luxury of Dreaming

Yesterday, after an insightful phone conversation with my aunt, I was lost in thought about the luxury of dreaming. We were discussing the hardships of the people who came before us in our family, paving the way for our experience in this lifetime. I posed the question to her-Why is it that we come from a line of people who placed importance on order, working hard, and living modestly? And yet, there exists a drive within myself to reach beyond that way of life, exploring the things I am passionate about and daring to dream. My aunt said something very profound to me that I had not pieced together before now. Imagining the hardships of my family’s past, dreaming wasn’t available to them. Striving to survive doesn’t leave room for the luxury of pursuing your dreams. Thinking on my family’s narrative, I am reminded of where I have come from, and where I desire to go.

In my lifetime, I have the luxury of pursuing my dreams, and for that I am grateful. Recently, I shared a piece of poetic narrative with fellow blogger ‘Seeing the Whisper.’ I was so honored to see my own words reflected back to me through that experience, and I wanted to share that piece here. I wrote the words listed below just before leaving my hometown and moving to a place I had never been. I continue to pioneer into the wild unknown, blessed with the luxury of dreaming.

Dear Life

“Dear Reader, do you remember your passion? I’m not writing of desire, although it has its’ place. I’m writing of your passion. At the very core of you, the call you can’t resist, but daily hide under a veil of responsibility. Your passion-what you dream of in spare moments…the ‘if only.’ You only have one shot at this lifetime. One chance, now, to do the thing you are meant to do. Will you let it slip by? Inside of me a fire burns to create. Any way I can find to create from nothing, and bring into being something. For so long, I denied this creating its’ place in my life. I decided during one of the hardest times of my life, as tears leaked down my face-I will sink my teeth into my dream, and I will not let go. I will hold on. I will follow my heart, my dream against every obstacle, against every opinion. I just want the chance to lay my handprint on our timeline. Write my initials in history like wet concrete.” -Gordon Hays, 2009

Image: “Dear Life” by Gordon Hays, 2010

Artist, Writer, Wayshower

Gordon Hays Artwork

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gordon-Hays-Artwork/380616048717195

The Good Life with Gordon

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