This quote from Eleanor Roosevelt might just be one of my favorite quotes ever. I am a big proponent of the future. It holds all our possibilities, dreams and eventual realities. It provides us opportunities for change, life altering experiences and a path to achieve our dreams. The future can be anything we want it to be, if we only believe that dreams can come true. If we truly believe.

When I was growing up as a kid, I always wanted to do something great. Not necessarily to be rich and famous, but I dreamed of a life full of meaning and passion. Along the way I had opportunities to do good things for good people and also made mistakes that set me back from the life I wanted to live. I had self doubt, low self esteem and all the things that teens and young adults experience as they navigate their life path. In my adult life through mergers and changes, I lost jobs where I had devoted greater than ten years of my life that caused me to start over. Yet, I still had that dream to live a life full of meaning and passion. It was only when I finally discovered not defining my life by jobs, money and possessions was the key that I needed to achieving that dream.

One would think that walking into a nursing home for the first time to visit a grandmother would be the beginning of a long lonely road, not a moment of self discovery. When those visits led to the creation of the Bring Smiles to Seniors program, it was only then that I realized that achieving your dreams were possible. Over the next four years I would meet people all over the world that became part of an amazing movement to remind seniors that they are loved. My dream of living a life full of meaning and passion was not only realized, it helped me believe how beautiful dreams can be.

When I speak about the Bring Smiles to Seniors program, I tell everyone that I had a little dream that became a very big reality. Not only for the hundreds of thousands of seniors that we have made smile, but for me and my own life journey. On days when I am down and need a pick me up, I focus on the change my volunteers, the people who participate in our program and I bring to the senior community every day. My hope for you is that you too believe in the beauty of your dreams. Not only believe in them, but fight for them, love them and make them your own. They may not come over night, but they will come. When they do, what a beautiful experience it is.

#morningswithron