As a society, we have
given away our power to dream. We have given it
away to the media, to creative types other than
ourselves, to our nighttime fantasies. Perhaps
you have heard of the Australian Aboriginal
people's Dreamtime. Indigenous Aborigines place
great emphasis on dreams and take dreaming quite
seriously. Apparently no major decisions are
made without first consulting dreams. We all
possess the capacity to dream. It is called
imagination, or the conjuring up of images.
Humans speak in words. Soul speaks in images.
If we acknowledge that we
are Soul expressing itself as life in human form
and we wish to experience our heart and soul's
desire, we must reorient ourselves to the dream.
Last night I watched a
children's movie I hadn't seen in years. It's
called The Neverending Story. This story
is about a little boy whose mother has recently
died and whose father deals with his son's grief
by demanding that the boy get his head out of
the clouds and put his feet on the ground. Many
of us remember daydreaming as kids and hearing
much the same thing. The movie's theme is based
on a book the boy finds when he ducks into a
small bookshop in order to avoid three
tormenting classmates. The bookstore owner warns
Sebastian away from the book, saying it will
involve the boy more than he would want.
Sebastian does indeed become part of the story,
journeying through a vanishing world called
Fantasia. His struggle between doing what his
father requires of him and doing what he dreams
is a struggle we can all identify with. We have
all been conditioned to follow rules imposed by
others.
Learning to find our way
out of this jungle of confusion is the journey
we take when we decide to follow the dictates of
the creative Source abiding deep within each one
of us. This little movie is packed with metaphor
and symbolism relative to this richer, soulful
journey.
Fantasia is the realm
created by human imagination, not so different
from the one in which we live. What we believe,
individually as well as collectively, becomes
our experience of the world. When we lose the
capacity to dream, we have rejected our ability
to create. If all life is indeed cast in God's
own image, how are we honoring Creator by
casting aside our innate, God-given power
to creatively manifest our own abundant good?
The industrialization of the modern world
demands, to some extent, that we file in line
and shuffle off to work to keep the consumer
machine oiled and running. We forget we have
choices. When things appear stalemated, when we
feel stuck and hopeless, we can always dream.
Initially it might take time to get our
imagination primed and running. But the world
will be enriched through our courage to
contemplate.
Many of us do not grant
ourselves nearly enough down-time. Dreaming
requires reflection, hence our ability to dream
at night while sleeping. In such incubative
spaces, we often receive inspiration to try
something different or new. During such
reflections, intuition flows. Along this stream
of awareness, we are carried into a place of
immense possibilities. This state of expanded
awareness is where we may meet Creator, or our
own inherent creativity. It is where we
reconnect with Soul. Daring to dream fills us
with hope. Many spend their entire lives in
fear. This is a choice.
Both hope and fear are
states of mind. The mind can be reined in. The
mind can become the servant of the heart, rather
than the other way around. This, too is a
choice. Daring to dream gives us permission to
invite magic into our lives. It invites Creator
to be our partner in discovering how each of us
can express our unique talents and abilities. We
don't have to be work drones. If everyone
understood this, if each of us performed
services for others with genuine love and
excitement, imagine what kind of world we would
live in! Though this might seem idealistic,
change begins with each one of us. And each of
us has the power of choice.
The death of imagination
is the death of Soul. It is the destruction of
Fantasia, a world rich with images, creation and
food for the senses. To reactivate our
participation in this world, we have only to
begin anew. The power to create afresh exists
within each one of us. Dare to dream, and watch
your world transform through the creative power
that is God, acting through You.
