How’s your dreaming mojo doing these days? Did it get buried under an onslaught of responsibilities, hidden beneath rising credit card debt, or forgotten amidst kids soccer games and getting the garbage to the curb each week?

My dreaming mojo disappeared around 1993. With my feathered and hair-sprayed bangs, my overcrowded over-bite, and my widening hips, I sat in the 5th row of The Phantom of the Opera and listened to a rendition of “Think of Me” that caused goose bumps to race across my skin. In a moment, I threw in the dreaming towel and decided I could never be thin enough, pretty enough, or talented enough to have a career in Musical Theatre. Eventually, I stopped taking voice lessons, writing music, and even playing my guitar. My love of writing and music got lost during my pursuit of a practical career and a six-figure income.

At the height of my recruiting career, a candidate came back from a trip to Peru and, over lunch, she told me all about her trek to Machu Picchu. I smiled and asked supportive questions, like a good recruiter does, but I am not ashamed to admit that my heart was brimming with envy.

Oohhh…lucky you. YOU get to take time off to go to Peru. YOU get to climb mountains and see the world. Well, SOME of us have responsibilities: Bills to pay. Candidates to take care of. WE don’t have time to gallivent around the globe like 20 year olds. Thank you very much!

Ok, maybe my thoughts weren’t that harsh, but I will admit that my internal dialogue had a slightly bitter tone to it. Even though I’d wanted to see Machu Picchu for years, I couldn’t justify taking that much time off work or spending that kind of money on a vacation.

Most of you know what happened shortly after – the Big C came along and changed everything. Although I loved my recruiting job and all of the candidates I worked with, when I finished cancer treatment, I found myself faced with a surprising desire to follow a brand new track. Perhaps my little brush with mortality caused me to re-activate my long-suppressed dreaming voice. Since then, I often find myself asking the question, “Why Not?

Why not volunteer in Africa for 6 weeks? Why not give up my home in Vancouver? Why not come up with a Big Hairy Audacious Dream to volunteer around the world? Why not work towards creating a Foundation to help other cancer survivors volunteer overseas?

As I’ve said before, listening to the little voice of your dreams doesn’t mean living without fear. I’m afraid every day. I’m afraid of all of the same things you are afraid of – how I will pay my bills; when I will find someone to share my life with; whether I will be able to have children; how and where I will raise those children; and how I can make a positive impact on other people during the (hopefully very long) time I have left on earth.

But, for all of you dreamers who have become reacquainted with your dreaming mojo, you already know a little secret. In those moments when a dream comes true, the worries about the future fall away and you find yourself absolutely flattened with gratitude.

When, I found out I had a few days between my IVHQ project finishing in Cuzco and my ProWorld project starting in Urubamba, Peru – I knew I had to find a way to make one of my dreams come true.

From the second I woke up on Monday in the small town at the base of Machu Picchu, I had a clown-sized grin on my face. The grin stayed plastered in place through the line-up to board a bus at 5:30am, through another line-up to show my ticket at the gate, through the early morning chill while I watched the sun begin its crest over the mountains, through the heat of the 2.5 hour tour, and through the sweat and heavy breathing of my climb up Huanipicchu. The whole day, I felt nothing but intense, I-could-kiss-the-ground – thank-God-I’m-healthy-and-alive gratitude.

My time at Machu Picchu also made me think of one of my next big dreams, which is to learn how to rock climb (yikes) and I can’t wait to meet other young adult cancer survivors when I participate in a First Descents rock climbing camp in September. Why not keep the dream train rolling?

Can you relate to that dream coming true feeling? I know many of you are big dreamers and you continue to inspire me to keep facing my fears and living the dream. But, if you and your dreaming mojo parted ways back in the eighties or nineties, perhaps now might be a good time to get re-aquainted? And yes, your dreams, too, may have evolved past the feathered bangs, broadway star phase…

As Napoleon Hill says in the quote above – your dreams are the children of your soul and the blueprint of your future. What blueprint are you designing right now?

Here are a few more pictures of Monday’s dream come true day…