Self-Improvement | Grief | Inspiration | Life Lessons | Advice

Absolutely Embrace the Inner Hunter of Your Dreams

Otherwise, you’ll be the hunted, not the hunter.

Yesterday, August 5th, was my mom’s birthday. She would’ve been 92.

It’s been six and a half years since she died.

I still miss her. A lot.

My mother was my foundation and staunch supporter. Just knowing she was there for me, rooting for my success, gave me the strength I needed to go for the larger than life goals I had set for myself. Even on the last day of her life, she encouraged me to go for my dreams. She implored me to live my life to the fullest. Did she know those would be her last words to me? I didn’t. I gave her what turned out to be my last hug and kiss … goodbye.

If I’m not careful, I could fall into the depths of sadness once more. For the past six and half years has been full of loss … so much so that my whole world as I knew it is gone.

And throughout these years, I’ve been searching for answers to my question — what’s the point of life? We go through this effort to grow up, go to school, get a job, marry and raise a family, buy a house and a car, try to attain success in our careers, maybe have some fun, love, and happiness dispersed intermittently in the different life stages.

All for what purpose?

Only to lose it all in the end. All of it has no real meaning. The love is gone. The possessions are gone. The successes flitted away. The fun? Only a fragment of a distant memory.

And then I questioned —

Was it worth all the heartache, and the effort to get to this endpoint only to realize that everything about our life disappears when we die? Even the remaining pictures and papers — that chronicled our lives — will disintegrate into dust.

When Jim and I were driving back to my house yesterday, these thoughts tumbled into my mind once again. We were chatting about the road construction project called “The Gap.” As I gazed out at the surrounding hills and pastures speeding by the car windows, I wondered how much longer I would watch this scenery? I wondered why we get so wrapped up in the outside world’s minutia and allow it to take over our lives, our thinking, our feelings, and our well-being? I wondered how much time I have left in my life. Then, I realized “The Gap” inconvenience was a frivolous complaint. Whether the road was fixed or not doesn’t affect my happiness — unless I let it. I saw, at that moment, how I was being sucked into the mindless drama around me. If I want to live my life to the fullest, I MUST stop falling into its quagmire.

Embrace my inner hunter

As I am writing this journal entry, I remembered an entry I wrote last year about embracing my inner hunter. It was a message I had sent in an email to myself. It said –

“We must hunt for dreams; our truth. The choices we make should always be the steps we take toward our purpose … for what matters most to us. Otherwise, we’re the hunted, not the hunter.”

And, then I wrote -

“As we go through life, we get very comfortable (stuck) in our day-to-day living. After a while, we don’t “hunt” for what matters to us. It’s too hard. We’ve fallen into a deep rut, hypnotized into believing that’s all life is. Dreams are for fools. And, we don’t want to look foolish if we followed our dreams. We’ve become afraid of taking the riskier roads to get what we really want in our lives. We’ve become afraid of the hunt.”

Becoming a vigilante

I get it one more time. I must be vigilant with a heightened awareness of my thoughts and mindset — as to the stories I’m telling myself. I must be a hunter for my dreams and the desired life I want to live in my remaining years. I sense that I don’t have the luxury of time on my side. I must remember that every moment counts. Every moment is precious. And I can’t waste any of it on things, events and people I can’t change.

I’m clear about what matters to me and the rest of my life. I know I have to keep “hunting” to bring about the life I want to live until my endpoint.

I cannot allow myself to become the hunted, the victim.

I must always be the hunter.

I would like to thank Dr. Yildiz and the entire Illumination community for creating this platform to help each other have better lives filled with joy, love, and happiness. I also want to thank Tim Maudlin and Jeff Herring for their support and encouragement to publish what I’ve written.

Illumination is an excellent publication to find fabulous stories. Here are links to some of my writer friends -whose stories I think you would enjoy: Tim Maudlin JeffHerring.com Brenda Christopher MaryJo Wagner, PhD Dr Mehmet Yildiz Vickie Trancho Jesse-Melva Johnson Sunita Pandit Peg Duchesne Trapper Sherwood Kathleen N Hoagland Phil Brakefield Margaret Eves EricAsbeck.com Larry Nowicki William McPeck Steven Zabronsky Jane Gardner Eileen Roth Bill Todd Candy L Hill Marian Hays Helen Boss Chris Hallett Doug Golinski Brian Basilico Marjorie J McDonald Ntathu Allen

PS I’m a widow who refuses to live a life filled with grief, but instead, I live a life filled with joy, happiness, and love.

I’ve written about my journey out of grief and into bodaciousness. If this story helped you to alleviate some sadness or grief, I invite you to read my other stories about life and the possibilities to experience joy once more.

This story is brought to you by Linda Kay Halladay. Find out more about my travels through grief in my introduction: