“People live between the dream realm and reality. The dream catcher is the one who can bring things from the dream world into reality.” –Jamahl Crouch
There once was a fish with a dream. Despite living in the ocean, he had the belief that he was able and meant to fly. He wanted to still be a fish, but he aspired to be a fish in the sky. The fish had a lot of well-intended voices in his life. Some of his friends were eels, who only wanted to look out for him. They told him to quit, that such dreams were foolishness. Point by point they broke things down logically for him: whether he had gills, a tail, fins, and so on. In short, he was told to be realistic, he couldn’t fly. Their arguments were nearly overpowering. They concluded by telling him that “there’s no reason for you to fly if you were born to swim.”
Though he appreciated the concern of his friends, the fish had to shake off the doubt they represented. He knew what he wanted and clung to the illogical hope that he would one day fly.
While he pursued his dream, he had to navigate a school of angel fish. They looked pretty. They talked a good game and whispered sweet promises to him. They were fun. Sometimes they were necessary. Yet every time he followed them, they took him further and further from his intended path. They were distractions, destructive in their own way. They feasted off of him. He rarely recognized them for what they were until after the fact.
The fish realized that he was near the bottom of the ocean now. It was a dark time. A school of sharks began to circle. Sharks were powerful, but they could never fly and they knew it. The sharks resented him for his dream and sought to devour him with their hate. He swam past them, but they chased him. They hounded him every stroke as he swam for the surface. Without thinking about it, he broke the surface of the water and shot into the air. It was just a moment, but it gave him a taste.
When he returned to the water, some fish met him. They shared their dream of wanting to one day fly. After seeing him do it, even for so briefly, it gave them hope that they might be able to do it. They wanted him to show them how to go about flying. And the fish realized that it wasn’t about how long he was able to fly, but about being inspired and inspiring others. The journey was about the trying.
Life is about moving from being a dream chaser to a dream catcher. It means waking up every day and asking himself one simple question: “What can I do next?”
“Graffiti tag the walls of somebody’s mind.”
-Jamahl Crouch
(Because once somebody has made up their mind you can never real change it, but you can leave an impression and give them the option to change it.)