Never Stop Dreaming Raising the Barr Weekly Memo: Issue 443

Hadar was here. Our 6-year-old granddaughter, Hadar, spent 5 days with us last week, without her parents! She really wanted to be here at Camp “bubbe”, Laurel’s grandma directed camp, and Hadar had been anticipating it for months while her big siblings were at sleep away camp.

This young lady is bold and sassy and willing to try almost any new thing. She learned how to swim, back float and stand on her hands under water while her parents were at home. She taught Laurel how to tie-dye white towels, paint rocks and couldn’t wait to place the little rocks on all the headstones of Laurel’s departed relatives at the cemetery. Yes, that was one of the activities she asked to do.

She cooked, baked, crafted and sketched in a pad while sitting on the benches and studying the art works at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She struck up conversations with our adult friends and helped them in their homes with household chores, woke up at 5:30 am, assisted with our wildly jumpy puppy, and tried every new food offered to her. Hadar is always willing and wanting to try things she has never done before and experience so many new things. She’s somewhat fearless.

And just a few days ago, another risk taker, Richard Branson, blasted off into space aboard a rocket he helped develop over two decades with his company, Virgin Galactic. More than 50 miles high, he, the other passengers and flight crew, enjoyed amazing panoramic views of the Earth unimaginable to everyday people like us. As he floated around in space, he taped a message using onboard cameras that said: “To all you kids out there – I was once a child with a dream, looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship…If we can do this, just imagine what you can do,” he said.

Poignant words from a man of incredible success are applicable to all of us. Never stop dreaming, never stop trying new things and with that, take a few risks. It could change the way you see this great world and open your eyes to incredible wonders you never could have imagined before.