Of a Dream and a View

There is nothing hollower than seeing and experiencing others who don’t have a dream to fulfill in their own lives. People will not understand you when you leave the framework of normality. But if that normality truly worked, then why are you stuck in a mindset that doesn’t allow your own growth?

Jesus’s disciples often questioned why He did certain things, not understanding the grander plan that would unfold—culminating in the cross and humanity’s redemption. They were thinking small, when Jesus was thinking of history-shaping events that would lead to a paradise on Earth in the span of millennia.

It is a waste of time to convince others to see the vision you have for yourself. There might be certain mountains you might want to climb to experience a certain view that only you might define.

I’m not even talking about critics. Those should always be ignored for the sake of the greater vision you have for your goals.

I’m talking about people who can’t seem to break out of predetermined thinking, and those who see the world in the dismal zeitgeist of people who don’t know how to dream or manifest their reality.

I’m not preaching against being pragmatic, to be clear, but how in the world would any of the key events of history have happened without someone fulfilling their vision?

What if you were the only person in the world who understood what the color red was? Everyone else saw every color but red, though you swore it was a real thing that existed.

Think about it for a moment. There would be no sense in forcing them to see it, because the rods and cones in their eyes wouldn’t allow them the capacity to notice the beauty of an apple.

For some, the color would be anything but the red you so longed for them to see.

Avoid convincing others of what it means to dream, because the likely reality is that they sleep through the night without a wink of imagination.

If you know you have something to offer the world, then you should offer it. Don’t misunderstand me, though. Sometimes our gifts need further development, and I don’t say we should hope to fill the world with something short of our full potential.

I’m the type of person who would wait 20 years for something, or perhaps even longer than that.

People around us might not understand what that type of patience entails. They might want the “quick growth” when the fruit of the wait would not sour the tongue.

In my own life, without being too personal, I have multiple paths and choices I could make that would lead to the sweet fruit we should all long for. I often think to myself that if I go this way, then that other way might be destroyed. That if I choose a certain thing, other things might break.

It’s at those moments that I remind myself that many people would love to have that issue, and that I shouldn’t take anything in my life for granted. But when you have to pick between one form of pure and another form of pure, will going in a different direction suddenly make things impure?

That probably makes little sense to others, but I believe the words in my mouth and I know what I’m talking about.

Both choices are pure, you know? But I’d hate to assume that choosing the right or the left would make the other side any less important or valuable.

Hindsight would make all things clear—to be fair to time passing—but we don’t always have the luxury of waiting for time to pass.

What I’m trying to get at is, if I choose to write only for a living instead of for the love of the craft, is that morally reprehensible?

Both choices seem to have their benefits.

We must make a living somehow, after all.

In that sense, each direction is a pure direction.

But the dream I have is to do the artistic side of the craft without having to do the other side as much, so that I’ll be free to craft intricate stories to the best of my creative ability.

To tie this back into the main thesis of this post, this dilemma wouldn’t even arise if I hadn’t dreamed at all, would it?

So I will keep moving in the direction of my true dream—taking as much time and care as needed to make it happen. The next horizon I want to see might be on the other side of five more books, and that’s fine with me.

But I wouldn’t have any views to see if I had never dared to dream at all.

I hope you understand what I’m trying to say here.

Keep your dream alive apart from anyone else’s opinions or negativity.

Blessings and shalom to you.