Saturday, October 3, 2009

If You Can Dream It, You Can Make It So...





I have been thinking about this for the last few weeks and I see it coming up for many of my friends around me, in different ways and varying degrees, some know that they will have to change their way of living and being to achieve their dreams, others need to adjust their attitude, some are just plain depressed, defeated and afraid, and want to crawl under the rug and hide. I seem to have experienced all of the above at different times, and have been pretty much stuck in the last one. I have been hiding under a rug, and really, it hasn't served me very well. I decided to come out from under the rug.

I have felt some of all of this as my world keeps shape-shifting and I know big change is coming and I know what it is and I know what will have to happen for the changes to occur, but I have no control whatsoever over the latter. I believe in my dreams, I know the things that will happen as I cross the threshold into this whole new world, and I know good things are coming, but those are immediate things and what comes afterward is the scariest part for me.

Once I get the new cottage and the new (to me, I'm looking at pre-owned certified cars for now) and get settled into the new space and my new and much larger studio is put together, I will once again move into my art, and the book that has been dangling and jangling about in me will need a little push to create forward motion, so that I can finish it and get on to other things. I have several books that I am making notes on but one I've been working on for some time, and it's time to finish it. On that front I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, writing everyday with this wonderful online group of writers to give myself that push. I seem to be the kind of person that doesn't do well with a feeling of great spaciousness, but I work like a demon when it gets close to deadline. I once wrote a novel in six weeks, but it had been percolating inside of me for two years as I made copious notes. I wrote nearly round the clock and was wild eyed for those six weeks, and everyone cleared a wide berth around me and let me be. I wasn't fit for human connection at that time.

These latter creative dreams, my fiber art and my writing, are the goal, it's how to get to the place that I know I will gain the momentum I need to move forward with everything, because it will be an especially hard time, even amidst the new changes. The changes cannot come until my mother passes, sometime very soon, and it will be a bittersweet time indeed, and I think that right now I'm afraid to even think of the work ahead, the new life, and finally finding my way into my dreams only after my mother has passed, and the time for grieving works it's way through. I thought I knew how I would achieve my dreams, but now I am just confused, and sad, and uncertain. Frozen, afraid, but then, as always happens, I seem led to a quote that is a great teaching for me, and helps illuminate the path ahead, and knowing this helps me to gain the courage and the strength to go on, and to know that there are many ways to achieve my dreams, perhaps, I think, I need to just find a different way of working toward them. So this quote set me right again...

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached,
don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

~ Confucius ~


We often get so set in the way we imagine that things need to be done, that when they don't quite go that way we feel as though we have run into a brick wall, and, since we can't see around the other side, we give up, turn around, shrug our shoulders, and, defeated, head back, with our dream lying dead in the road. What we need to remember is that even The Great Wall Of China has a beginning and an end. All we need to do is walk around the wall. Life is full of change and the best laid plans seem just meant to go KABLOOEY just as we are about to take steps to achieve them. In the dance of life there are many steps that we can take. Simply turn in a new direction and find new ways. The fact that you can't get from here to there in the way that you had imagined will probably be a very good thing. It will broaden the scope that we all need to see many more ways to move into our new life. I can be exciting. Dreams only shatter if we let them. We are not going to let them.

I always like to think of Grandma Moses. She didn't start painting until she was 75. She painted until she died at just over 100 years of age. I love the quote attributed to her, "Well, if I hadn't started painting I guess I would have raised chickens." Life was big to her, she could paint, she could raise chickens, she could do anything she wanted to. It never bothered her that she was 75 years old when she started. I don't think that gives any of us a good excuse to say it's too late. I know men and women in their 40's and 50's who have already given up on their dreams. Not what would Grandma Moses say about that?

When I was young I had a beautiful poster of a ballerina flying in mid-air in a beautiful dance move. The poster said, "If you can imagine it you can achieve it, if you can dream it you can become it." It's time for us to start imagining and dreaming, and walking around any walls that get in our way. Everything is possible. Let's begin...

Maitri

8 comments:

  1. Hi Maitri dear,
    I love reading most of your articles, and believe it or not, I am experiencing the same situation here based on this particular topic. I got to change to more challenging life, got to go back to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city and get a job and start back to square one! Imagine! Too many incidents happened screwing up my life, so I ought to be brave to challenge it, apart from helping too many rescued cats and kittens here abandoned by those selfish people and feeding them only on my saving, I dont think anybody on earth will do that! That is why when I read this articles, I know for sure you are a very good and geniune writer who write with substance.

    Wish you well and will come back to read more since never a minute I get bored when I read your articles.

    Apart from all the good writing, you are also spreading love to the world!

    Big hugzz from me and have a beautiful life and pray that all your dreams will come true too.

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  2. maitri, you are such a talented and wise woman. i enjoy your writings immensely and always look forward to new posts. the confucius quote is great and i will be writing that one down to put it in a place i can see it every day. thank you and have a great day...hugz!

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  3. I think you will like NaNoWriMo a lot - it is a great community, and knowing that there are lots of others Out There also writing, helps when the going gets tough.

    I'm doing it too - there's a link to my profile there, on each of my blogs (my NNWM name is EleanorS, after my detective-heroine)-

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  4. I love to dream and strive to achieve them.TO me, without a dream one doesn't have a path to follow or an aim to achieve!!!!!

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  5. Maitre, Lovely post! It is liberating when we just "let go," isn't it? We get a lot of opportunities in life when we dream but often are so set in our ways about HOW it will happen that we fail to notice them. That's why I let my excitement and passion lead me to my next step.

    I recently saw Wayne Dyer and he said that he doesn't pick out books to read: but rather allows them to speak to him. I know exactly what he means as this is how I've been choosing my reading list for a couple of years now. The same approach can come with your book/s! All the best, Barbara

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  6. Beautiful Maitri. I am so glad you too have decided to come out from underneath the rock!

    What you have written is right on target. Some times it may be hard for us to remember to hold onto our dreams.

    But, hold on we must all do!!
    Peace and blessings!

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  7. I love nanowrimo... I didn't try it last year. Maybe I should try it this year.

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  8. You always have the most beautiful and inspiring posts!! I love to come here and read and read.....

    I have given you an award over at Candles, Crafts and Whatnot. Congrats!

    :) Kat

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