Let’s face it! Not everyone will get their dream job, the mansion and summer home, the fashions and lifestyle you think you need or your personal vision of a perfect life. And I say, “that’s OK”. There are bigger things that you need and deserve before any of these things.
I learned this early on when I had so many health issues in my early adult years and no one could give me a diagnosis, that I needed my health more than dreams. In my youth, it was just labelled as acting out and self destructive behaviour. By the time I was in university, it was worse and affecting my studies. But the strong willed person I am, made me persevere and just try and hide the pain, laugh about my frequent trips to the washrooms and disguised my growing anxiety by mocking myself. I finally learned after so many told me that it was all in my head, that I had severe food allergies and Celiac disease. Oh how quickly can life change when you know that you can mend yourself and have dreams again.
My next journey was to learn to navigate the world again without gluten, eggs, fish and shellfish and legumes. Back in the 80s, there were not a lot of GF food available and I learned quickly that spices and processed food often contained one or more of the items that I had to avoid. So that meant many years of eating bland food and lots of rice.
I survived for years, learned as much as I could about food labelling, hidden gluten, how to eat out safely and carried out a normal life. I have had some high points like my marriage to the greatest man in the world, the birth of my daughter, a great career in IT development and the introduction to a healthy brand of GF food and spices from Epicure.
What did I learn from my journey so far? I learned that I still need to have dreams but now know that simple pleasures and passion may just give me as much or more satisfaction than obtaining those big dreams. It’s the daily affirmations, the hobbies, yoga, good health and friends around me that ignite my passion for life.
So dream big. And if you hit some roadblocks or setbacks, put the big dreams on the back burner and rely on the simple pleasures to get you through. Passion can get you quite far in life!