Living the Dream
Wouldn’t it be weird
if when you woke up this morning
you were twenty years younger
and you realized that the past twenty years of your life
was really just a dream?
If that happened to you
what would you do?
Would you want your dream to come true?
Or, would you change a thing or two?
When reflecting on your dream
would you be disappointed with how things turned out?
Would you have wanted the you in your dream
to have made different decisions
or followed a different path?
Perhaps, to those people who died in your dream,
you would have wished you were a little bit nicer;
or spent a little more time with them;
or taken the time to tell them how much they mean to you.
Well, the fact of the matter is
the past twenty years of your life were not just a dream
and you cannot relive those years and do things differently.
But, you do control the next twenty years of your future dream.
If you wished you would have been nicer
start being nice today.
If you wished you had spent more time with your children
I am sure, even as adults, they would welcome spending time with you now.
If you wished you had read more
pick up a book.
In the years that are ahead
you can say, “I love you”, to those not yet dead.
If you wished you had achieved more
it is not too late today.
If you wished you would have been more charitable
the needs are still there to be met.
If you wished you would have written more letters
you can start by writing one to me.
No, those last twenty years were not a dream,
but you are now living the dream of what comes next.
Learn from the lessons of your yesterdays
and don’t wake up tomorrow, wishing things were different
… instead …
make them different.
And now, as I bring this poem to an end
I hope for you
a new dream can begin.
Copyright © Joe Flach | Year Posted 2012
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