About the Care and Feeding of Dreams

There are days I wonder what on earth I'm doing. Here in my office at home during the summer while my friends are at the beach and on cruises. Haven't had time to balance my bank account or even open the mail. Writing. Checking. Making sure I'm consistent. Jumping in Blackboard Collaborate with Julie Lindsay in China at the wee ends of both of our days - later or early, that is about it.

Trying to put into paper the pattern for how one can collaborate globally with excellence while improving learning in the classroom. Just how one can make projects like Flat Classroom massively scalable.

But I don't feel preachy right now. I don't really feel anything but tired and Coked Up - Diet Coke that is my friends, lest you unsubscribe in a huff.

This is the lonely side of writing. I got my daughter today to help me take all of the notes from reviewers and cut them apart and bind them together using the circa planner. That was good.

Then I spilled Diet Coke all over my comfy bicycle pants with the pink stripe and manuscript covered in pink highlighter. Not so good.

So, I called my husband knowing he would tell me just what I needed to hear.

"You're making progress, Vicki. Just keep going and you will finish."

Then, I walked back to my bedroom and put my head into my pillow and let a tear slide down my unmade up cheek. My youngest son got to me and looked at me holding my face in his chubby ten year old hands,

 "God will let you finish. You are making progress, Mommy, just don't quit."
Don't quit, Mommy.

So, I'm writing this post to share with you no epic educational theory. Only words from the trenches. When you're doing something worth doing it is hard. There is no romantic hero waiting in the wings to sweep you away and take you to Italy away from the struggle and exhaustion. But there are encouragers and if you've got them, hold them close. 

Watering the FlowersDon't quit, my friends. If you plant the seed of a dream and water it with your tears and tend it with your time you will eventually reap a harvest that is due you.

The only way you can lose your dream is if you abandon it to the parching sun of a careless world and refuse to water it with your tears and tend it with your time.

Dreams die not for earnest yearning but for lack of the midnight candle burning.

Great dreams require great sacrifice. If you look at the person in the front of the room of thousands looking to be speaking and having the time of his or her life know that most likely their dream began in their office amidst sweat and tears.

No matter what becomes of this writing career dream I've had since I was twelve, you, I, and my children can look back on this post and know that the path was not easy.
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