I was inspired to write a post tonight :) But honestly, I don’t really have anything to say haha I find that often happens when I get involved in too many things. However, today was a good day, so I turned to one of the many books around my bed for inspiration…with Pharrell’s new CD [G I R L] playing in the background ♫ “a winner never quits and a quitter never wins” ♫ haha…here’s the quote that caught my attention:
“We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake.” – Diogenes
Wow. I had to pause the music to reflect on that. I don’t often remember my sleeping dreams…but I remember there was a time that I did. In college, I remember I had this book which detailed the meaning of dreams and I would consult it…so curious about the hidden meaning of my dreams. I’m not sure that it ever helped haha I had this one recurring dream about a gold butterfly tattoo (which I was never inspired to make real because I didn’t think it would be cool forever haha) and I could never figure out why. Now when I consider it, I feel that I am that gold butterfly. I’ve always loved butterflies…for me they represent beauty, change, freedom, and new beginnings. I have seen white butterflies lately and I feel as if God is telling me that beautiful change is unfolding. It’s wonderful…and they always make me smile :)
And then there are waking dreams. I am a daydreamer and sometimes I find myself drifting into the comfortable ether of what ifs… I transport myself to different places and imagine myself doing different things. I look at the picture above and imagine being on the top of mountain looking out…or swimming in the lake which I imagine to be ice cold. And what would I do for food? Would I go fishing and make a fire? haha With such a vivid imagination, I find myself lost in beautiful images such as these…and then found in the calm and serene peace that such wonderful sights of nature embody.
It is amazing that we can get so caught up in our dreams that we miss the oneness and beauty all around us. We strive to understand the meaning of our dreams, but we fail to dig deeper to truly understand what’s in front of us. We make quick characterizations about people based on meaningless things…gender, race, weight, clothes, etc. and we don’t even question our assumptions. So easily, we believe our own thoughts…our unquestioned, unchallenged thoughts…and accept them as true! Amazingly, we don’t often take time to consider that the same Creator of the oceans made us too. We miss the complexity and simplicity of each petal that makes up a beautiful rose. We may not consider that pulling a petal off of a rose could be like removing one of our fingers.
I think of the last scene in the movie Men In Black, (if you’re curious, click here for link to video) when the camera zoomed out to the Earth…then the Galaxy…and finally showed a creature playing a game marbles, with one of the marbles representing our galaxy. We miss the bigger picture.
Or we may lack compassion and curiousity about the homeless person we assume to be an addict (I appreciate and love to support organizations like School on Wheels that seek to assist children impacted by homelessness). Or we jump to judge the stripper who may have had an abusive past (thank goodness for organizations like Treasures who seek to provide outreach and help for these women).
I find that when we are curious about the world around us, we start to understand that we are all connected…and we are so much more alike than we are different. We feel more compassion for others and we look for ways to help our fellow men/women/children…we feel stronger love and connection to animals…and we appreciate the value of life in all it’s forms.
When we are truly seeing things as they are, we know that we are all one. And our dreams reflect our desire to help everyone else awaken to that understanding also. In realizing that dream, we can live out our purpose in small, very meaningful, ways like smiling or taking the time to have a conversation that could be life changing. (Thanks, J! :) If we all had more patience with each other and compassion for each other, the world would be transformed. A beautiful dream…that starts with each of us :)Photo source: Blue – Peyton Lake by Shuchun Du