Illustration by Michael Glenwood Gibbs

February 2020 —  Fear: It can take anyone down in an instant. When you think too long and too hard about the pandemic that is currently shaking the world, it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole and imagine all sorts of doomsday scenarios.

But what would you do if you weren’t afraid? That’s the question we pose to anyone who is just about ready to be brave in the face of whatever may be coming around the corner. No, this is not a level playing field. There are people around the world with few or no resources to rebound. But that is not true for everyone. In fact, many of us have untapped strength that has taken a lifetime to cultivate. And now is the time to find the strength, band together, and take the risk of being courageous — each and every day. For inspiration, we share wisdom (below) from a dozen wise women and men who dared to dream.

Sending heartfelt wishes for health and wellness: mind, body, spirit and soul. — Hope Katz Gibbs, publisher, BeInkandescent.com

• “There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll

• “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman

• “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” — T. E. Lawrence

• “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” — Oscar Wilde

• “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” — Vincent Van Gogh

• “Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?” — Leonardo da Vinci

• “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.* — Gloria Steinem

• “If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.” — Les Brown

• “I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re goin’, and hook up with them later.” — Mitch Helberg

• “He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher… or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.” — Douglas Adams

• “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.” — Tupac Shakur

• “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” — Edgar Allan Poe

More here: brainyquote.com