A few years ago, I read an article about a 13 year old girl named Athena Orchard who died of a rare form of bone cancer.  I’ve never forgotten Athena, for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, the tragedy of her having such an unfairly short amount of time on this planet.  Never getting to live out all of her cherished dreams.  Having to leave behind family and friends who I’m sure are still lost without her.

But Athena left something else behind.

A 3,000 word note written in black marker on the back of her bedroom mirror.

It was a series of her thoughts on everything from love (“Love is rare, life is strange, nothing lasts and people change.”) to life’s possible meaning (“Maybe it’s not about the happy ending, maybe it’s about the story.”)

But the one that struck me the most was this:

“Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about.”

How many times do we all toy with the idea of giving up a dream, stomping our feet like a five year old and whining, “It’s too hard!” We do this because we believe we have all the time in the world to come around back to it. Maybe tomorrow, when we aren’t so tired/cranky/depressed/anxious/(insert excuse du jour here).

Athena would have given anything for my tomorrows. How dare I even consider wasting them?

So, I’m signing off here to get back to the dream I think about daily.

Writing.