Ja-lene Clark:
Dreams Come True

Melissa Harris left Monday after spending a week with me in Tulsa.  She did not come to visit us on vacation…we worked on her new book that will be out later next year. This book is the story of her life and art. Melissa has spent a lifetime creating an extraordinary portfolio of paintings and in this book she shares what has driven her to accomplish this.  This book has been her dream for a long time. That dream will come true for her in 2012. (By the way, her book is quite wonderful, full of prose, packed with about 60 images.)

A couple of years ago, Melissa and I met in High Springs, Florida to work on her card deck. She stayed in a cabin on the river affectionately named the River Shack while I was given more luxurious accommodations in an elegant tree house (yes, this is true!). We met at the River Shack to work. While we were in Florida, I learned first-hand that Melissa is always on high alert, waiting for the opportunity to capture an emotionally evocative image. Sometimes she takes a photo and then paints the image later. I sat on the riverbank under a canopy of amazing cypress trees. These trees were large, ancient looking masterpieces and I felt exceptionally small in contrast. As I sat there admiring their size and majesty, Melissa grabbed her camera and took a picture of me looking up.  A few months later, she sent me her painting of this image that she most aptly named “Dreams Come True.”

(click here to see the painting)

I love the painting; however, the title Melissa chose also deeply struck me. Just two short years earlier I had met Derek O’Neill for the first time in Los Angeles. I was treated to a front row seat for his presentation in a conference room that was filled with several hundred people.  I was in a time of transition. I had just left the security that came from my position as associate publisher at Council Oak and was finding my path into publishing in a new way. I didn’t know how I would do it but I knew I HAD to do it. No choice. No matter how tough it was to be, this was the path I had dedicated myself to. As I sat on the front row with my eyes closed during a meditation, Judy Garland’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow was playing and I was lost in the lyrics. Derek came over to me during the song and sang one bar into my ear… “The dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

Yes, yes, dare to dream…I did. I am. No matter what earthly challenges come my way, I will continue to always dream and be excited each time one of those dreams come true.

What is it that you are dreaming of experiencing or doing? Is there a dream inside of you that just can’t wait to be seen and loved by the world? What haven’t you done yet that you are called to do? Now is the time. 2012 is the year and this auspicious date is just a few weeks away!

Take just a moment now and join me. Listen and watch this video and then spend a few moments contemplating and asking for direction. What dream do you dare to dream? Watch the video and then use the “ask a messenger” feature on this page to share your dream with me. I would love to hear from you.

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