May You Reach Your Dream

Yesterday morning, I felt fine. Long story short, sparing the details, in the middle of the day I collapsed in public. At least it was in front of adults and not kids. (I teach.) But there is nothing more embarrassing than collapsing in public, let me tell you.

As I was being transported to the ER, I started thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. (Doesn't everyone think about Maslow while in an ambulance?)

Beauty, as you can tell, is at the top of the pyramid of needs, with esteem and self-actualization. And when you are struggling with meeting things at the bottom of the pyramid, like physiological needs and safety (including my body health issue), that need for beauty certainly takes a backseat.

It's a curious thing, how it all works. How we as humans need food and employment and friendship and confidence before we can reach that coveted self-actualization. It sort of connects to the idea of "no excuses". Can we make eternal excuses and never reach self-actualization? Absolutely! On the other hand, at some point we just have to convince ourselves that our lower tiers of needs are satisfied *enough* and that we can, in fact, reach the higher tiers, even though we have some issues to overcome.

Many people I know have health issues.

They all continue reaching for their dreams.

So, was Maslow wrong? Can we reach for self-actualization when we are hungry all the time? I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that we just have to keep moving forward, because backward is just not an option.

 

My love to everyone who works through their adversity to reach for their dream.