Someone Else's Abandoned Dream

An unfinished building in the middle of the jungle

Someone Else’s Abandoned Dream

I was covered in mud.  That is, my body and the side-by-side I was driving on mud covered roads through a jungle in the Dominican Republic.  It was a welcome and almost total departure from my normal reality.  But, I didn’t have any idea just how far afield I had gone until I turned to go up a hill to find a total surprise at the very top!

There, at the top of a rise, overlooking a beautiful beach was a large, three-story, unfinished, abandoned building.  It had been there long enough, that the jungle was working to reclaim the cherished spot.  The concreate was crumbling, the rebar rusting and some of the stairs and walls were in mid-collapse, so I steered physically well-cleared.  At the same time, my eyes stayed riveted to someone else’s abandoned dream as I drove past, toward my destination, the Caribbean Sea.

I saw it, the turquoise water, past the decaying concrete, through the trees.  The slope of the trail rushed downward at the crest, calling me toward the rush of my favorite water in the world.  And, in a few more minutes, the muddy trail was replaced by pure, fine, white seashore sand.  That’s when I pulled over, stopped the machine, walked to the sea and let it rush over my feet and legs.  And, it was there, under the swaying coconut palms and the deep blue sky punctuated with inadvertent clouds, that the ocean breeze seemed to communicate a very personal message to my soul.

Here I was, off the beaten path, enjoying the world’s beauty, and all I could think about was that decaying building on top of the hill.  It was as a knife striking me through the heart!

“How much of me has become like that decaying building?”  I said to myself.  “Have I abandoned my dreams on the crest of life’s hill when such amazing beauty is so close and open for enjoyment?”

The two questions stuck to my mind, like the mud covering my body, as I got back into the machine and started back up the hill.  My dreams have become covered by road mud, because I have allowed myself to be distracted by life’s jungle. That was the message carried on the breeze, as I rambled back up that hill toward someone else’s abandoned dream, on mud covered roads, through a jungle in the Dominican Republic. 

This adventure was a welcome and almost total departure from a reality that has become, in some ways, the disappearance of my authentic self.  But, I didn’t have any idea just how far afield from my dreams I had gone, until I traveled up this particular hill discovering a stark contrast between that decaying building and the beauty of the white sand beach, heightened by rhythmic, turquoise water below!

 “My own dreams have been abandoned long enough!”  I almost yelled at the jungle while it steadily worked to reclaim someone else’s cherished dream, on my second pass. 

It had taken such a folly to awaken me to the crumbling concrete, rusting rebar, falling stairs & mid-collapsing walls of my own dreams.  And now?  My eyes are once again becoming riveted to who I really am.  The person I’ve always dreamt of becoming.  My true authentic self.

“I won’t let life’s jungle take my dreams any longer!”  I whispered to the breeze as I drove on toward the refreshment of a cave, so I could swim in its pool of crystal-clear waters, constantly replenished from a dripping ceiling.