We often mistake dreams and happiness for something that is tangible. Something we can hold in our hand, count, point to and put on display. We mistakenly live our lives thinking we can do happiness or that happiness can be done to us when happiness and the fulfilment of our dreams is a wonderful state of being. And that is a problem for some of us. We were taught to keep pushing for higher grades, for another raise, for more return on our investment that we never took the time to learn to simply be, to live in the moment and to breathe in life and everything it has to offer.
That is what happiness is, and that is the only way realize your dreams.
Your dreams won’t show up in your life one day. They won’t knock on your door. You will be living your dreams and not even realize it until a circumstance in your life changes that. You will look back and realize that where you were was in fact where you wanted to be all along. You will also look into the future and try to image what happiness will feel like, taste like and look like, but when you get there you’ll be surprised to discover that it is different. And it would be wrong to assess if your vision of the future was right or wrong because that is not the nature of dreams.
Dreams are intangible things. Being in something doesn’t let you grasp the thing until you stand outside of it, but once you are outside of it, you are no longer in it, and so its best to learn to be present and accept life as it unfolds itself.
Focus on writing instead of writing a best seller. Focus on making a difference in one person’s life instead of agonizing about being unable to change the world. Learn fifteen notes of a masterpiece and know them by heart, instead of agonizing how you’ll ever get to master the whole thing.
Stop thinking about what will make you happy and do something that will make you happy. But don’t just keep doing. Do and be. Become someone the world cannot handily replace or easily forget. Don’t worry so much about how you’ll get where you are going, but just keep going.
Life is not a linear journey. We are not on the same path. We are in an ever expanding universe with no left and no right. There is no up and there is no down. There is no time and nothing we absolutely must be doing. We created time, and the to do list, and capitalism. It was made by us and it serves a purpose. It helps to organize us and ensures seemingly limitless progress, but non of the constructs we’ve created in good faith change the nature of the universe of the nature of of dreams.
Breathe a little today. Don’t forget to smile either and don’t take life too seriously either. Your dreams are not a thing. You are not a thing. You’re a wonderful, courageous human being, and your dreams are everything.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Joshua Earle.
https://unsplash.com/@joshuaearle
