Wednesday, January 20, 2010

fueling a dream




It begins as a flint striking steel, producing a spark hot enough to ignite tinder.  It continues as you add more heat and fuel but will only grow into flames if there is fresh air flowing through the woven bits of kindling.  One flint, one spark, bits of straw along with the surrounding oxygen and you've got yourself the beginning of a crackling fire.  

It begins as a faint idea toppling out of the friction between your head and heart.  A thought spark hot enough to ignite feelings of desire.  It continues as you add more passion and gathered information, but will only grow into a dream if there is fresh air, a spirit,  flowing through the woven bits of contemplation.  One faint idea, one spark between thought and feelings, bits of reflective yearnings along with the surrounding oxygen to feed the passion behind the idea and you've got yourself the beginning of a dream. 

So often our attempts to turn a spark into a productive fire, to turn a faint idea into a dream dies out before we have a chance to fuel it.........or to provide enough breath to keep hope alive.  It can be a disappointing process, filled with a sense of failure and not a lick of success.  All smoke and no flame. It can drag you down, and strip you of the desire needed to replenish.  You begin to lose the internal combustion as you try desperately to figure out why the flame didn't ignite. 

When for one reason or another we do manage to grow a dream, it almost seems like a miracle because it feels like it occurs against all odds.  There is a piece of a fulfilled dream, however,  that has no clear explanation as to why this one sparked brightly enough to broaden into something real and tangible.  This is where destiny dwells.........it's where a divine light shines.  No dream is complete without some mystery.  

All we can do is carry our flint/idea, a piece of metal (our thoughts and feelings) and a pocketful of straw and twigs (reflections, contemplations, ruminations).  All we can do is offer our spirit..........our air to oxygenate our thoughts and feelings to turn them into action.  A dream needs heat, fuel, air and a little bit of divine intervention to come alive.  

You also have to put words to it..........you have to vocalize it or else it will just remain a haze of smokey illusions.  When was the last time you shared a dream idea with someone? 

Just for the record?  I really really really want to visit the Island of Iona.  




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I shared a dream with someone today. I also shared my fear of failure, and how that fear has kept me in neutral at times.

For me, it's about simply responding to this deep, instinctual urging to go down this path. I don't know where it will lead (which is SO frustrating for pragmatic me), but I know that this desire, this dream, is sincere and holy. The only way to fail is to not respond at all.

Gilly said...

Fires should be encouraged, bit bt bit, its no good dumping a whole lot of stuff on it and putting the thing out! Equally, its frustrating to heap loads of lovely flammable material on, only for it to burn up fiercely and then die away.

Dreams can be like that.

Mind you, sometimes they are not worth very much, and when we see them burning up we realise there wasn't much there in the first place! (This especially happens to me, as a writer!!)

And Iona is simply beautiful. I went there in 1965 and was bowled over by the sense of peace and the vastness of the skies and beach. I so much want to go again, this time as a Christian.

awareness said...

Jen...you hit the nail on the head. WE just have to give it our best shot by responding with determination by listening to that instinctual urge. I really like how you encapsulate this. Those insistent dreams do feel like they are coming from an inborn urgency.

Gilly...i'm with you. its so true. so often i'll light that little fire, maybe put too much into it and kill the darn thing, or I simply realize its one not worth pursuing (or I lose interest)

Anyone I have spoken to about Iona has describe it the same way as you have...... in a reverential whispering kind of way. Yes, this is a place I want to experience. I'll see you there! :)

Savannah said...

I think rather than talk about our dreams it is important that we live the dream. I don't believe much in talk these days but action? Now there's a word.

S. Susan Deborah said...

I wish you visit Iona sooner than you've imagined.

Hope and joy,
Susan

kenju said...

Now that you've put it into the universe, it will have a greater chance of happening. What a wonderful place that looks to be. I love panoramas like that!

awareness said...

Gypsy....the thinking and the feelings stirred feed the action. And visa versa.... That's how I see it. We do have a tendancy to get stuck in our thoughts and become unwilling to move beyond that for whatever reason, but for me if the feelings are stirred, i will become obsessed with the drive to make it happen. the latest example was my trip to Greenbelt. I couldn't let go of that dream and had to push towards making it a reality.

Susan...thank you. I have the same wish. Iona has been simmering in my head now for a couple of years and the more I learn about the place, the more pulled I am to make it happen.

Judy....my thinking exactly...gotta put it out there! :) Anyone I have spoken to who has made that trek speaks of it with a whispering reverence. There is a sense of something deeply sacred and holy present at Iona. I love its history too and the connections to Ireland and Scotland.