Dreaming Passionately

06.27.11 – Venice, CA

So much has been written about people’s dreams in life. So much more will be written in the future.

The gurus will sell books, the creatives will make us dream with movies, ads and images, the vendors will sell dreams and

Forces

the masses will buy them. It’s one of the main forces in life. For many a dream will remain nothing more than a wish. For others… escape. Many will dismiss their dreams as fantasy. Many will force themselves to stop dreaming and “just get on with life”. Others will not even allow themselves the sheer pleasure to dream and many more will be conditioned to think that dreaming is a “waste of time”.’

Looking at the ocean, listening at the waves crushing the shore I am reminded to think of just a few years ago when everything I am doing now, was then a dream. People are funny about life dreams. Some declare them openly whilst others keep them deep inside them. The world…it seems, is not kind to dreamers. There is fear and hesitation in sharing your life dreams because we have all been curiously conditioned to think that dreams are an extravagance. They are a luxury that we can’t afford…if we are to believe the self-proclaimed “practical” types. Yet…. without dreams we are nothing.Without passion we cannot dream.

Dare to dream,

Because only by dreaming,

will you ever discover who you are,

what you want, and what you can do.

– Julie-Ann Ford

If it wasn’t for the dreamers nothing of what we deem wonderful, incredible, artistic, insanely beautiful or insanely daring would ever have been accomplished. If it wasn’t for dreamers the world would be without so many of it’s treasures and human kind would be without most, if not all, of it’s greatest accomplishments.If it wasn’t for dreamers life as we know it simply wouldn’t be the same… Yet…the world frowns. Parents, teachers, leaders and societies tell us that dreaming is wasteful…its meaningless, its not reality.

As people we become conditioned to believe that dreams are somehow separated from “real” life and there is “little point in dreaming”. Try telling that to the folks at NASA or Disney or the Wright Bros, or Henry Ford, or Thomas Edison, or Ghandi, or Martin Luther King, or…. The negative conditioning is relentless…its all around us. Those that dare to step out of the “norm” are frequently chastised and ridiculed. The pressure to stay within the accepted boundaries is enormous and omnipresent. Conformity and commoditisation are the order of the day.Yet…just imagine how boring and lifeless the world would be without dreamers….without the seemingly “crazy”, those that dared to dream and set out to make their dreams a reality.

The explorers, the writers, the sculptors, the painters, the poets, the movie makers, the architects, the fashion & industrial designers, the builders of monuments, the engineers and Disney’s “imagineers”. Where would we be without them? Its easy to scoff and ridicule and its far less time consuming to tell a child to “stop dreaming” than it is to sit down and share the dream, ask questions, try to see it through their eyes and offer your full support.Its much easier to find excuses, to procrastinate, to call others “lucky” or to not dare to dream. Its safer, its easier and its much less taxing to stay within one’s comfort zone. But to what end?

Drum Circle, Venice, California

Moving to the States was a dream…but by no means a grand dream. Hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions) have moved and will move, all around the world every year. They are not “lucky”, they are not “special”, they are not “extraordinary”. They are just people who dared to dream and set about making their dream a reality. They worked hard, they suffered setbacks and they no doubt got frustrated and disappointed along the way. But they did it. They took the steps, they took the risks, they took the setbacks and they kept going. Their lives may often look idylic… but only they know what it took to make it happen.The point is… they dared to dream!

In this chef’s humble opinion there is no mystery to dreaming, its not a special skill that only the “lucky few” possess. Its a pleasure you should allow yourself and not feel guilty about.

Dream often, dream vividly and dream freely. Follow your passion, believe in it, have passion for life, dance like nobody is watching, love like you have never been hurt before, and believe in yourself like you are the only one who can make it happen.

Do what you would do if you had only ONE life. Dream Passionately.

Drum Circle, Venice, California