Dreams and Reality
Is it possible to shiver with warmth? I believe so. It happened to me recently. I’d booked a flight to Malaga, while sat in a cold Dutch cafe; the rain dropping endlessly onto the streets outside. I instantly felt more nourished, more healthy, more alive.
One day I’ll move to Spain, I sometimes tell myself, then everything will be so much easier. Espressos in the sun, red wine with lunch, lazy conversations on slow terraces, refreshing ocean dips. That’s the dream, right? If so then why do I never drink in the daytime, rarely exchange words with strangers and seem to avoid the sea at all costs?
Perhaps we don’t like our lives to be so simple. An intelligent person, as far as I can tell, is nuanced, complicated, with countless contradictions. We all love a good story but the best of us don’t entertain such stories any longer than necessary. The moment passes; the dream was magical, inspiring and helpful, no doubt. But it was exactly that: a dream, and nothing more.
Reality is a real B*tch at times. It’s formless, vague, yet so undeniably ‘real’. I don’t enjoy admitting to my own bullsh** when reality comes knocking on the door to propose a good ol’ fashioned truth telling. I realise the intricate ideas I’ve fabricated slowly over time. How many people I’ve unfortunately involved. The wasted time and energy that goes into propping up my hopeful lies.
I can’t do otherwise. I’m a human being and so I wish to try for the impossible; to create the perfect structure - my own comfortable, perfect world. Whether it’s your company, relationship or house, every second works to decay the idea of itself. Intelligence (or ‘awareness’) is how quickly you can notice and respond to your own destruction. It’s really as simple as that.
Meeting reality bravely, and head on, won’t make you many friends. At least not to begin with. Your partner, colleague or child may not particularly like your new understanding or insight. But if you can trust yourself, and trust reality, then they’ll respect you for it soon enough.
And, if not, then Reality is sure to have something sweet or savoury to say about it...
If you’re feeling lost up to this point then one of two things is happening: 1) you are unaware that something (or many things) apparently ‘true’ to you are simply ideas, just like everything else; or 2) there is some resistance to paying deep attention to the words – feeling them, tasting them, absorbing what their content might mean for you in your life.
Always we are hearing but not listening, watching but not seeing. How would reality appear without the dream filter we so often place on top?
Pretty neutral, plain, uninventive, I suspect. Or perhaps it’s like staring through a kaleidoscope - Energy, colours and vibrations galore! I simply do not know, for I’m full of my own stories just as you are.
You came to the wrong place for an answer; but the perfect place for questioning...
How does reality appear to you? How would you like it to? And how might your dreams bring you closer?
Every dream is a cage to be escaped.
And reality: a mountain peak, waiting to be reached.
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