In the begining.

This is blog number 1 of, hopefully, many. I chose this name because I have had many 'dreams' (hopes and ambitions) over the last 50 years. I couldn't have just 'brokendreams' as my blogging name because it was already taken. I actually wanted to use 'unfinishedjourneys' but that was too long for the naming system to accept. It represents another aspect of my life; one that still has a hopeful element as I may still be able to go back and finish them. Another way I sometimes think of my broken dreams is as 'shattered expectations'. The 62 that I chose to add to my blogging name is not to represent my age, as that would become out of date within a year of first using it, but is my birth year. A fixed point that will tell you roughly how old I am, whenever you come to read a blog I have published.

For now I am intending to publish my blogs under this name and to remain socially anonymous to any readers. If by some small chance you should genuinely recognise me from the things I say about myself, my life or those I have shared it with, please respect my wishes and don't name me in a public comment. I plan to be largely unspecific about identifying characteristics, names of people or places unless not using them makes the content of the blogs pointless. Confidentiality has been a big part of my professional life and also a source of some personal conflict when someone I was close to couldn't accept the boundaries I needed to maintain. I will do my best to stay away from any confidential information or matters that are not mine.

Not all of my dreams, hopes, ambitions or expectations have worked out or sometimes not in the way I would have liked them to. I don't think anyone would be able to say that they have made it through 5 decades of life with every one of their dreams fulfilled. When I look back over my life I can see a lot more of them broken in my life than in other people around me. Perhaps they have just been very good at hiding them. Sometimes it has seemed the broken dreams have had a disproportionate impact on me, my life and my personal development.

I want to explore and set out some (maybe eventually all) of the dreams that didn't pan out and how that has affected me or is affecting me still. I am a 50+ man as I a write this (in case you didn't work it out from the birth year in my blog name) who was born and raised in England. I am divorced and never remarried, with two grown up sons. Just in that statement about me I would think that some of the broken dreams would be obvious. I am a lot more than that, of course. I am a son/brother, and having sons of my own, a father. I had a military career so I was a soldier. I had a professional healthcare career. I have been a singer in choirs, in musicals, for myself and for my family. Still these are only a very small part of who I am.

I am going to stop there. I think that is enough to say for my 'beginning' blog. If you have found and read it, thank you. If you don't like what I said or say in the future it isn't vital to my wellbeing that you tell tell me. I'm not averse to criticism, challenge or correction. I just don't think it is helpful as often as those who like to give it believe. If you did/do like what I write, telling me will be appreciated.
A very significant part of what makes me who I am is my Faith. I have been a practicing Christian since I was 10