Once upon a Wednesday morning, long after the coffee had cooled and the crossword had been conquered, a curious thing happened in the town of Maplewood. A group of seniors, people who were supposed to be “slowing down,” “taking it easy,” and “acting their age”, decided to do something rather scandalous.
They decided to dream again.
It began, naturally, at the local coffee shop. Edna, who was
82 and had a pink streak in her hair that she called “attitude,” announced she
was finally going to start her online art gallery. “People believe what they
want to believe,” she said, sipping her latte like a philosopher. “And I’ve
decided to believe that it’s never too late to make the world see what I see.”
Her friends looked at her, blinking over their muffins. Then
Harold, retired accountant and world-class skeptic, muttered, “Well, I’ve
always wanted to learn how to play the trumpet.”
“Then do it,” Edna replied. “Dreams come true, if you
believe, that’s what they do. The only variable is when.”
And just like that, a tiny rebellion began.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that there are two ways to go
about dreaming, the slow approach and the quick one. The slow approach is what
most people accidentally choose. It goes something like this: Resist.
Attach. Insist. Deny. Stop. Second guess. Whine. Argue. Defend. Protest. Cry.
Struggle. Ask others when you already know the answer yourself.
It’s exhausting. It’s the way you end up thinking you’re
“too old,” “too late,” or “too set in your ways.” It’s like wearing an old pair
of shoes that don’t fit anymore but refusing to take them off because they’re
familiar.
The quick approach, on the other hand, feels like pure
magic. Visualize. Pretend. Prepare. Dodge. Roll. Serpentine. Do not waver
over intentions. Alternate your approaches. Release your doubts. Show up, even
when nothing happens. And keep giving thanks in advance.
In Maplewood, the seniors went all in on the quick approach.
Eleanor started sketching fashion designs again, saying she
was “inspired by fabrics that still believe in curves.” Gerald, who used to be
a teacher, began writing a children’s book about a time-traveling goose named
Walter. Even quiet Nora, who hadn’t spoken of her dreams since her husband
passed, dug out her old gardening gloves and announced she was going to start a
rooftop butterfly garden “just to prove gravity wrong.”
When people questioned them (and people always do), they
smiled knowingly. “People believe what they want to believe,” Edna would
repeat, her pink streak gleaming like a battle flag. “We just happen to believe
in our own magic.”
You see, dreams don’t have an expiry date. They just wait, patiently,
faithfully, until you remember to water them again. Believing in yourself isn’t
naïve; it’s strategic. It’s the secret handshake of the universe. Because the
moment you truly believe, the world begins to rearrange itself to meet you
halfway.
And that’s when the miracles start looking suspiciously like
coincidences.
By spring, Maplewood was buzzing. The local paper ran a
story called “Seniors Redefine Retirement: The Town That Forgot How to Stop
Dreaming.” And it wasn’t just about hobbies or projects, it was about
energy, about courage, about refusing to let the “end chapters” of life be
anything but luminous.
Sure, not every plan worked perfectly. Edna’s first online
art sale crashed the website. Harold’s trumpet practice startled three cats and
a very alarmed mail carrier. But they kept showing up, kept laughing, kept
dreaming, and that’s the real magic of it all.
Because when you dream with your whole heart, you don’t just
change your own life. You give everyone around you permission to start dreaming
again, too.
So, if you’re sitting there wondering if it’s too late,
here’s your gentle (and slightly mischievous) reminder: it’s never too late.
Dream anyway. Visualize the life that still calls to you. Pretend it’s already
happening. Prepare a little. Dodge the doubts. Serpentine past the critics.
Show up, even when it feels silly.
And most of all, keep giving thanks in advance.
Because one day soon, when your dream comes true, you’ll
laugh and say, “Well, of course it did.”
After all, people believe what they want to believe.
So go ahead and believe big
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