I have never forgotten two poems by Langston Hughes that I first encountered in a high school segment in my English class about the Harlem Renaissance movement in literature. Both these poems are about the importance of having and realizing your Dreams. Whether you relate these poems to your personal LIFE DREAM or to a more political notion such as in Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream!” speech, the value of holding to your dreams and to your collective Dream is the same.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore, and then run?
Maybe it just stinks, like rotten meat…
Or crusts and sugars over, like a syrupy sweet.
Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load…
Or does it explode?
The importance of having a Dream, of being a Dreamer, is fundamental in all approaches to self-development and to spiritual practices, isn’t it? Our imagination, the ability to creatively envision a ‘better ending’ to any situation you are in or that we face in society, is our greatest strength. To dream is to transcend, to free yourself from undue self-limitations, to soar.
So here’s the second reminder from Langston Hughes (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dreams-2/) :
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
images from pixabay.com
Better Endings 