Dream Space

Fabulous artwork by Mati Rose

 
 
We need space for dreaming. Spacious space. Lengths of time.
 
Dreams don’t fight for attention. They don’t yell over noise.
 
Sometimes a dream will interrupt and assert itself, but mostly dreams speak when invited.
 
Dreams speak when we ask: What do I want? What’s my dream?
 
What’s my dream for this life? For this family? This company? This community? The world?
 
Dreams speak when the space is cleared of dream devourers—shoulds, fears, feasibility analyses.
 
Dreaming space is listening space, receiving space. Listening within. Listening to the wind. Tilting your head to hear. Receiving words and images that don’t make sense yet.
 
I need to tell you: a space that allows the question, “Well, is that even possible?” is not dreaming space.
 
A space that hosts chatter about circumstances and only if is not dreaming space.
 
I know, it’s hard to hold dream space: what comes up there doesn’t seem possible or realistic. And it’s not the kind of thing you can imagine reporting on during run-ins with acquaintances in the grocery store.
 
Not to mention, what comes up in dream space often is not the kind of thing you can imagine yourself having the guts or the talent to carry out.
 
But that would be the lie.
 
Be brave and vigilant about putting aside concerns about feasibility and execution and other people’s opinions and whether you are up to the challenge or not, for now.
 
It’s your job to gently remove other people’s opinions from the space. It’s your job to gently stop yourself from imagining how you’ll explain this in the grocery store, or to your sister, or to your spouse.
 
Then listen, unfold, inquire, explore, receive. Devote time and space only to the dreaming.
 
“But won’t I just get lost in making unrealistic plans and procrastinate and stay in the fantasizing stage forever?” a voice in our heads asks.
 

No. I’m here to tell you that we don’t get lost in dreaming because we allow space for dreaming. We get lost in dreaming when the time comes to move forward and we are afraid of going for it, of leaving the status quo, risking failure and change.
 
Place blame where it’s due, on the fears, not on the dreaming.
 
If the colors have grown muted, if you are wondering how life came to feel so frenetic and rough, if something feels off and you suspect life could feel different, open up the dream space.
 
When you give a dream full room to exist in you, you don’t have to force action. Action will pull you, and the dream will, in it’s own way, meet you in the world.