Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
And so I came to this dream like place, but I couldn’t remember why.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on”
“Dream a little dream of me.”
We spend a third of our lives in a parallel universe, the nocturnal universe of sleep and dreams. We experience so much in this state, but we remember little. If you are anything like me, you remember virtually none of it. I am one of those people who rarely remembers dreaming at all. Most normal folks have these half remembered experiences, interacting with their waking selves. I am sure I do, but for me it is happening subconsciously. Our nocturnal dreams are fragmented reflections of our conscious lives. Patterns are weaved between our conscious and unconscious selves, often outside of our rational awareness. Strange to say though our lives can be transformed in these dreamlike states. People have been known to wake from such states transformed or ready for change. This is recorded throughout literature and history as well as religious mythos.
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on”. From Act IV of “The Tempest” by William Shakespear. This line spoken by Prospero describes what he sees as the illusory nature of life. He is comparing his magical illusions “melted into air, into thin air,” to the transient nature of life. He is saying that, life is but a dream. He creates spirits to entertain Miranda and Ferdinand before the wedding and makes them vanish just as quickly.
Here is the verse:
You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled:
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind.
This was the theme for “Ministry in the Making” that I recently participated in. In one of the workshops the students and new ministers were encouraged to explore their dreams of ministry; to dream of what their ministry could be, their wildest dreams. They were then asked to explore what my limit those dreams and encouraged to be careful that their dreams do not tread on the dreams of others. The truth is we always live in community with others and we all dream different dreams for our realities.
We live in an awakened state, but still we dream and everything wonderful and beautiful and worth while begins as a dream. The key of course is to bring that dream alive in reality. To return home transformed perhaps by the dream with treasure to share in reality. I felt like I had myself after a few days away with these wonderful and inspiring people. I also had some ideas of my own, which I hope to one day bring to reality.
As I was driving home I thought of Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” and her dream of that somewhere over the rainbow. That place she visited that changed her, but brought her back home to reality with treasure to share.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me
Oh, somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to,
Oh why, oh why can't I?
Dorothy of course dreamed of that place somewhere over the rainbow, a place away from dull, grey, flat Kansas. She was caught up in a tornado and carried there, went on an adventure and returned to Kansas, to reality. She was transformed by the journey and discovered all she needed was already there, it was already there within her. She realised she had the brains, the heart and the courage she needed she just needed to bring alive what was within her to life, to create her heaven on earth. I have come to believe that heaven on earth begins within us, perhaps in our dreams and it is up to us to realise those dreams and bring them to life. For as Jesus taught on “The Sermon on the Mount” “You are the light of the world”. All you need is already within you. All you have to do is bring it to life and let it shine for all to see and make your dreams come true, not only for yourself but for all. By shinning your light, you encourage others to do the same.
We bring heaven alive through our loving living or we create Hell by fearing one another, fearing life, turning away from life. We can dream our lives and live that dream and we can turn our nightmares into reality.
This brings to mind an extract from the wonderful book “The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. A story that at its essence encourages the reader to follow their dreams, trust in the journey and embrace the challenges and opportunities that come their way.
Here is the extract:
From “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho
"The boy continued to listen to his heart as they crossed the desert. He came to understand its dodges and tricks, and to accept it as it was. He lost his fear, and forgot about his need to go back to the oasis, because, one afternoon, his heart told him that it was happy. 'Even though I complain sometimes,' it said, 'it's because I'm the heart of a person and people's hearts are that way. People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them. When, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of the moments that could have been good but weren't, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.'
" 'My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,' the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.
" 'Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.'
" 'Every second of the search is an encounter with God,' the boy told his heart. 'When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.' "
Lovely isn’t it…
We all dream even if we aren’t aware of doing so. Some of us have very rich dream filled lives, others not so much. I am one of the not so much types. Dogs dream. I was watching Molly as she dreamed the other day, after the joy and excitement of her birthday.
…“We are such stuff as dreams are made on”…
During my week away I had many conversations, one of which may lead to a dream of mine coming to fruition, as I and others might work on bringing something to life. During the conversation we talked about some foundational Unitarian theology. We talked about the rejection of substitutional atonement and the rejection of the concept of “Original Sin”. If I have a dream it is that we all one day are finally able to accept that at the core of our being we are not fundamentally wrong, fundamentally flawed in our being,that there is something wrong with us in our heart and soul. I dream one day that we accept we are ok in nature. This is not to deny that we do wrong, of course we all do, just the idea that we are wrong at the core of our being and can only be saved from our wrongness by an act of Grace. So many forces have preyed and continue to prey on this sense of wrongness whether that be many of the religions or the modern day advertising and beauty industry, that tell us we can buy perfection. That we need to fix what is essentially wrong with us.
…There is nothing wrong with us at the core of our being…
We all suffer, we all hurt, we have all been hurt. No doubt we have all felt wrong at some point in our lives. It is important to recognise this. It is vital to know that we can grow beyond this, if we first recognise and acknowledge this. That we can rise from this and that we can play a part in this, that it is not just about some unearned Grace.
This brings me back to Dreams and how they can lead to change; change that can bring about transformation. This brings me back to literature and the wonderful example of Mr Scrooge who in his dream like state is visited by the ghosts of the past, present and yet to be and through these dreams is transformed and turns his life around. He is liberated from his chains of guilt and brings his dreams to fruition. He becomes the light of the world. It is so vital we see this, as Jesus did during his foundational sermon, where he lays out the vision of his ministry, “The Sermon on the Mount”. That we are the light of the world and if we follow this example we can shine bright. We have to dream the dream that this is possible, for it is up to us. We create our world. We create heaven and hell here on earth.
It all begins in a dream, but it doesn’t end there. We must turn those dreams into reality. We must make something of our dreams. We must encourage others to do the same. We must become a light to them and be careful not to tread on each others dreams.
Be gentle with your dreams and one another’s dreams
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream, dream
Maybe, just maybe, one day, our dreams might come true.
The devotion below is based on the material in this "Blogspot"
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