What Dreams Are Made Of

Here's part of a song someone made up.

Sitting high in an apple tree,
A giraffe came and spoke to me,
He gave advice so incredibly wise,
He taught me how I should live my life.

"Listen son, you gotta take a chance,
Don't leave your life up to happenstance,
You gotta learn how to rise above,
And live the dreams you've been thinking of."

I had a very awesome dream last night. This was just a normal dream but it was a very fun dream. A man came to me in this dream and told me that if I learned how to meditate and be one with all things I would have access to great power. So I practiced "being one with the universe" and to my surprise he was right, whatever I desired instantly took place. It was pretty cool.

When I awoke I kept day dreaming about the endless possibilities I had explored in my dream. Day dreaming (and night dreaming for that matter) is really easy. It's almost natural (at least for the young) to think about "what life would be like if..."

But I think real dreaming, dreaming as in "I have a dream," I think that can be really hard. It's hard to dream for real - to have dreams, goals, aspirations and something you're looking forward to that doesn't really exist yet. It's especially hard when you've dreamed before and got beat down, or denied your dream. It's hard to want and not to receive. It's hard to working and work and work and not achieve. It's hard to try and sacrifice when so many of our best laid plans go awry. It's hard when there's no guarantee of success - especially immediate success.

The dreamer isn't given the credit he is due. Think of what he's up against. Those that will not settle for what station is offered them in life (or in any aspect of life) have no other alternative but to dream.

These are people who have a vision of something else (however detailed that vision might be) it's something they have never directly experienced and yet they choose to believe in it. Sometimes it's hard for dreamers to believe in themselves, in their abilities or that as they progress toward their dream it will progress toward them. It might even be hard for the dreamer to believe on a fundamental level that he deserves to achieve his objective. Dreamers must continually make that choice to believe everyday. It can become exhausting to keep a continual supply of faith in something one has never seen or heard.

These dreamers are forced to grow. Nothing begets nothing. If one desires to manifest something new the current state of affairs must change. Personal growth is the key. People who don't understand this may complain about not having enough money in between TV shows. For their wish to turn into a dream that could actually come true an internal change must take place. Dreamers are constantly doing their best to purge their own souls of all things holding them back from their dreams. And that is a hard task that requires constant attention.

These are persecuted people. Doubts arise to strike down their faith. Their personal daemons or bad habits will sabotage their progress. But that is not enough of a sacrifice to achieve something that hasn't existed before. The dreamer will inevitably encounter someone or many someones dear to him that will not share in his dream. Those people will not understand and people naturally fear what they do not understand. If he does not have his guard up, if he is not substantially fortified in areas of personal faith and personal development those contrary people will stamp out his dream and he will be left a little lower and in a little darker place than before he made the choice to dream. But here's the ringer: his friends and family will believe they did him a favor by "bringing him back down to earth." His friends will make harsh judgements concerning his character or they may jump to unflattering conclusions concerning his sanity, intelligence or motives. The dreamer faces scorn.

The path of the dreamer is one that hasn't been forged and as such is fraught with peril and pitfalls. Only the determined, committed, faithful and courageous make it through.

If the dreamer's friends do not understand he must understand that they do not have eyes to see his vision. They do not know what they are rejecting. The only way to show them is to bring it to fruition. The dreamer must understand that he is a visionary. And he must gain as much intelligence on all topics concerning his dream as possible that he may have faith in all his actions and decisions.

Some have a certain level of guilt about success. Others even subconsciously feel unworthy of it. But this should never be the case, I say "Away with such thinking!"

We all have begun this earthly experience with all our needs and wants provided for. So long as we grow to handle it, and so long as we abound in innocence, character, faith and love such an abundant environment, such an abundant universe is our natural habitat.

As Parley P. Pratt has put it,

"Man is a candidate for a series of progressive changes, all tending to develop [him], ... to expand his mind, and to enlarge his sphere of action and consequent usefulness and happiness."

Dreamers of all kinds understand who they are and take full advantage of man's unique ability to dream.

Me, myself, and I

Have you ever known you should do something then decided you would be lazy instead? Do you remember how you felt later when you had to do that thing you should have done a long time ago? Did you think, "why didn't I do this before?" Or maybe you thought, "If I had done this yesterday I wouldn't be stressed out right now."

If you're the anti-procrastinator let me give you a different example. Nobody's perfect, when the time comes that you're inevitably disappointed in yourself how do you react? Is it your inclination to be hard on yourself or even develop self-loathing?

I've just been thinking about people interact with people lately and it's got me thinking about how people interact with themselves. Its a really interesting concept - interesting because of all the different intricate details of how people interact with themselves (self-deception for instance).

But perhaps in a general sense we ought to treat ourselves almost as if we're a different person. And I mean with respect as we respect other people. For instance if I saw my future me as a different person, maybe I'd not procrastinate because I don't want him to have to be stressed out because of me. I don't wanna be rude.

I value the respect of others. Some actions I take are often motivated out of gaining and holding that respect. If I saw myself tomorrow as a separate entity from myself now I'd certainly want to gain my future self's  respect.

If you think about it in some of the most important ways you are a completely different person. Depending on the length of time your past self may have a different personality than your present, and your future self will hopefully be more knowledgeable than you are presently. Memories are the only thing that link past to present and even they are mere recordings of how we presently perceive our history. Memories never entirely accurate or all-inclusive and they are not our history itself.

So far I've only mentioned this in reference me and myself in time but what about conflicting aspects of myself? Certainly I want all of the different and seemingly or obviously conflicting parts of me to live in harmony. This requires respect for each desire and each feeling, thought and action.

As far as respect is concerned I think the respect we have for ourselves and the respect we have for others should be very similar if not identical.

It is said, "treat others as you treat yourself." This may sound strange but in some aspects I think we can turn it around to say, "treat yourself as you treat others."