Words possess the power to move us. Not just any words, mind you. But words that are from the heart instead of the head merely. Suffice it to say there is a vast difference between inspiration and information. The former touches our feelings whereas the latter only teaches us the facts. And one year ago it was literally words that moved us here to where we live today.  

The reason my wife and I are experiencing our dream of living on the coast of Maine is that we expressed our dream in words, which formed the story that fueled our vision. The words we shared with one another created a narrative that became more and more powerful with each telling. You may have heard it said that dreams unspoken die unborn. But our dream not only was birthed, it came to fruition when we stopped our fears by stepping out in faith.

And to think we nearly talked ourselves out of coming here at all. Upon visiting the area for vacation last fall we fell in love with it and planned to make the move after returning home to put it in motion. Only I got cold feet thinking about what could go wrong instead of what was so right about it. That was when our landlady gave us the gift of a month’s notice to figure it out elsewhere. And then the power of words that generated our dream broke through the dam holding us back.

It was earlier in the year on our retreat to a nearby monastery that we came upon the book called At Sea With God by Margaret Silf and it served to put the wind in our sails for a return voyage here to coastal New England. And words spoken by another seafaring soul reminded us of why we love living here so much. The other day we attended a meeting at the local opera house with Linda Greenlaw, author of The Hungry Ocean, who said the title speaks of how consuming the ocean can be.

Dear reader, allow me to encourage you to give life to your dream by speaking of it until the experience of it resonates so deeply with your core being that the thought of not realizing it is consumed by the overwhelming desire to go for it, come what may. The power of words lies in their ability to keep afloat our dreams, no matter how seaworthy, until one day we spy the shore and sail into our safe harbor.