Running From Our Dreams
Thursday, July 17th, 2008, Luca DiMatteoRecently, I was in an elevator with six or seven others when two of them began to shout at the elevator for not moving quickly enough. Suddenly, the intensity in the tiny space became overwhelming. As the doors opened everyone began to push and shove their way through the opening and dash down the hallway to whatever destination they were headed for. I stood in the hallway watching as many of the others fast footed away. A few thoughts occurred to me; how willing are we to give our power to other peoples’ dreams, their beliefs? How fast are we willing to run from our dreams? Have you noticed a moment when you gave away your dream and ran with someone else’s dream? Take a moment and share the thoughts running through your mind with me.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Can I ever! For most of my life, I have tossed my dream away in order to jump enthusiastically into my romantic partner’s dream. This never works for long! I
recently read a book by Elizabeth Gilbert: “Eat, Pray, Love”. She wrote about her tendency to do just that. She described how she loses all of her boundaries in her immersion into the other person’s reality, dreams, rules, expectations, interests, desires, needs, giving all of herself to each of these emanatations from her new partner until she is so spent, so empty that the only thing that will help her to recover is the “magic” of a new relationship! Her book is lovely and she learns to love herself and shares this journey with the reader.
So for me, it seems to be taking most of a lifetime for me to learn to know and to love myself,my dreams, my desires, etc, This new love affair with myself is solid, strong, steady and good and is not requiring me to give myself away in the process!
December 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Yes, not only do we buy into the collective beliefs in a subtle way such as “more is better,” it seems we will take on the whole pattern, too. (The American Dream comes to mind) Perhaps one question that is never asked is if we do see that they’re dreams, what makes one dream better than another? Why is that situation over there preferable to this one? While some participation in the collective dream may be necessary, even in this context there can be freedom of expression- and more importantly, expression of freedom. Of course, being truly free involves wakefulness, awareness that it IS a dream.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Mark, these are excellent questions and I sat with them for a little before feeling a response. What came to me was TRUST. Trust in ourselves as individuals. Trust in our desires and the ability to see them for what they are. Trust in what we have and who we are and that all is as it needs to be in this particular moment. I love this time of year because I get to observe the dream of the masses. OH, and I get to be part of it if I wish to. But only if I wish to.