Inktober/Blogtober Crossover: Day 20

Today's Inktober prompt word is "breakable" and for reasons I can't fully explain, it immediately made me think about dreams.

Your hopes and dreams can be incredibly fragile things, hard to hold onto in a world that can too often seem scary and cruel.  And yet for many (myself included), without them life is infinitely more difficult.

In Disney's animated version of Cinderella, after being treated horribly by her stepmother and stepsisters, Cinderella assures her animal friends that there's one thing her tormenters can never take away from her:

That quote pretty much sums me up.

No matter what has happened in my life, I've held onto my dreams.  They're not necessarily specific - it's not really a case of dreaming of doing a certain job, or visiting a certain place.  It's more of a generic dream - a belief, if you will - that things will be okay in the end.  That I will be okay in the end.  A dream of happiness, of love in whatever form it comes and of feeling at peace with myself and the life I'm living.

It's not always easy to cling to.  As I said, dreams are exceptionally fragile things and there have been points in my life where I've not felt strong enough to believe in a "happy ever after" for myself, in any form.  There have been days, weeks, even months, when life has dealt blow after blow and it's hard to imagine being the happy, confident woman I dream of being.  It's difficult to picture a life that is full of positivity rather than negativity.  But as breakable as that dream is, I keep it, because I know it's possible.  I keep it because I know it's achievable; there are times when I don't just dream it, I live it.

Side note, I still half-wish I had this quote inked on me.

Back when I was a kid, being horrendously bullied on the school bus, that dream of one day being older and wiser, away from all the nastiness and living a happy life was the biggest thing that got me through it.  When I was recovering from an abusive relationship, I clung to the same dream.  Ditto for the hellish depression I went through last year.

Our dreams are breakable and yet they're capable of making us strong enough to weather the worst of storms.  So, hold them close.  Nurture them.  And, if you can, live them.