Head in the Clouds?

I've wanted to be a writer since e'er I remember. It's been a dream of mine which I've longed to turn into a reality. It has always sounded to me like fascinating work, living off my creative juices and filling the world with my ideas and inspiration.

But whenever I told someone about what I wanted to do I always seemed to get the same reaction - a dubious look on the listener's face and a wash of comments like "That's nice, but what about doing something serious with which you can eke out a career" or "Head in the clouds again? You know that it's a tough field, millions of challengers, and your chances of success are very small."

For many years I allowed myself to be swayed by these opinions and forced myself to settle down, get a "normal" job, and forgo my dreams. I lived this life for quite a few years and was even very successful at it.

But one morning I was lying in bed and I took a look at my life. I had it all: security, friends, food and shelter, and a job where what I did mattered to people. I had it all - so why wasn't I happy? Wasn't this what I'd worked so long to achieve? Wasn't this the life I was told to expect, the life I had strived to create? Wasn't this the promised land?

It then dawned of me that my peers had been right about one thing: I did have my head in the clouds. But I've had my feet firmly embedded in the bedrock of the promised land. What this meant was that I was hopelessly stretched like a man on the rack, and in the same type of agony. I had gained the customary wealth of a bourgeois society, but lost the light from the treasure of my dreams - and only because I had been too afraid to lift my feet from the stability of the ground and allow myself to fly.

I believe that there's nothing wrong with having your head in the clouds. This only becomes a problem if you have yourself deeply entrenched - irrevocably rooted - in the ground. If you want to aspire to more than the mundane, everyday man, you need to be able to uproot yourself and let your feet leave the ground so that you can soar through the sky of the clouds.

There will always be people who will warn you of the dangers of flight. There will always be those who try to keep you grounded. But if your head is "in the clouds" - and you like it there - then be willing to join it up in the stratosphere. Know the dangers but don't be ruled by them. Take a risk. And fly...