As I write this, it’s after midnight and instead of sleeping, my wife Elizabeth Dougherty is in another room listening to music. She is “recharging” after yet another long day and recharging is the best word I can use to describe it. I’ve learned over the years to give her the time and space she needs to read… to think… and to dream.
It wasn’t long ago that she floated the idea to me of hosting a weekday talk show… that in addition to substantially growing the weekend show she’s hosted for the past several years. At first I thought a weekday show was one of those really, really big dreams that your spouse tells you about. You know… the ones where you just smile, say “sure, honey.” I’ve stopped thinking like that, and I damn sure know not to ever say anything so patronizing.
When Elizabeth has a dream, I’ve discovered I have two options… find a way to help her make her dreams come true or get left behind.
So in just a few hours from now (at 6:06 in the morning) I’ll push the button on the computer screen and the Show Open for “The Daybreak Edition” of The Dougherty Report will play. She truly is “living the dream.” As the music reaches its crescendo, I’ll point to Elizabeth and she’ll begin. It’s amazing to play a part in her “dream” and sometimes I’ll lean back in my squeaky chair and watch as she shares what’s on her heart. She’s animated, she’s passionate, and she’s learned how to convert feelings into words and then to push them through the transmitter. She has big dreams for this show and I don’t think she fully understands just how good of a host she has become.
Everyone of us dreams, it’s the way we were wired. Most people today are so close to living out their own dreams (whatever those dreams may be) but they’ll stop just before the finish line. It’s sad. It’s a waste of human potential and I can’t help but feel it’s not what God intended when he gave us dreams in the first place. It’s actually quite a gift if you stop to think about it.
So the moral to this story is this: Your life is like a painting. There will be critics and those who claim to be experts, but at the end, only YOU will know whether you got everything out of it and if that painting reached its full potential.
Have a dream and follow it… just as Elizabeth is doing right now.
The music has stopped in the other room and she just curled up under the blanket. We didn’t get to talk before she drifted off but that’s okay… I know she’s dreaming.
Michael Serio
Executive Producer
The Dougherty Report
