“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”
I was taught the lesson of Eleanor Roosevelt’s words by five year olds at kindergarten in Japan. After overcoming the hysteria of the looks of their manga character English teacher, the inquisitive kindergarten class would question me:
“Jennie chan…….what’s your dream?”
The first time I was asked the question, it threw me, I hadn’t had a ‘dream’ for a while. I was 21, fresh out of university, living on the other side of the world. Dreaming was for children, not adults.
I will work for NASA and live in America
Hiruki, a straight A student who grew up in the States and was back in the Japanese school system, was pretty clear about her future intention (dream). She didn’t want to get married, she wanted to go to space and work for NASA. I only wish we had kept in touch….I’d love to know whether her dream came true.
Reality = dream/daydream + 100% belief
The question never failed to amuse me; I used to think how childish it was, knowing that one day they’d realise that adults don’t have dreams, we live in an adult reality not a dream world. Despite the inner cynicism I played along, conjuring up answers to all of those questions from “dreaming I could practice karate like a ninja warrior” to “one day marrying a handsome prince.” Years on those dreams have yet to manifest. Could the dream equation have been lacking the #belief element. C.S.Lewis said that “you are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself”
Alan Watts’s words have an almost starry eyed quality to them, like he was channeling a message from the universe, teaching us to use our vessels wisely and explore through the portals we are given. When I look back at dreams I had as a child and teenager, some of them have actually come true. Those are the dreams that I have been 100% committed to, that I have believed from the bottom of my heart and focussed on every day until they came true.
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Whilst at law school, after receiving numerous rejections, one day a dear friend suggested that I ask the universe to help me get the job I wanted. I was sceptical though I had been taught well by my young teachers in Japan. There didn’t seem to be any harm in it so on a winter’s day in 1999 I proceeded to write down my dream career on a piece of paper and placed it under my pillow. Every night I unfolded it and read it to myself, believing it would come true. On my side, I worked as hard as I could with the tools that I had to make it happen. One day, in the year 2000 the most incredible job opportunity appeared, seemingly from nowhere with the firm I had applied to and been rejected from years before. To cut a long story short, I got the job. It was the job I had dreamt of that was written on that piece of paper that I’d looked at every day. It had taken absolute dedication and hard work on my part, and I now believe that the note under the pillow was the first step that Martin Luther King preached of. I honestly believe that we get to choose our dream and to live that through the choices and actions we take in life.
Do we need to believe to make dreams come true?
The note under my pillow and the intention I set by reading it out to myself every day and imagining myself doing the job I wanted is testament to that.
The English esoteric philosopher, Alan Watts, believed that “when you get free from certain fixed concepts of the way the world is, you find it is far more subtle, and far more miraculous than you thought it was.”
The word ‘miracle’ derives from the Latin ‘mirari’ and conjures up feelings of wonderment, awe and amazement. What if, as a society, we actually believed that miracles don’t just happen in far off lands and spiritual realms, what if you were capable of manifesting a miracle, every moment of every day. All that you needed to do was to set the ‘intention’, focus on your dream and good old-fashioned believe. Now if enough of us did it and could build up a precedent of dreams coming true, perhaps, just perhaps, there might be a wealth of dream precedent for us to rely on to encourage others. I’m game if you are…
Believe in your dreams, they were given to you for a reason
– Katrina Mayer
In the spirit of Alan Watts, we are star stuff and the world is our kaleidoscope so it’s up to you to dream your dream, with its full constellation, grasp it with both hands, and make it happen #believe. If you need some inspiration and another dose of Alan Watts, check out the movie Zen Dog, that won an award at the 24th Raindance Film Festival last year and remember to “Follow That Dream”.
Calming Crohns 