There is nothing wrong with dreaming, but I think sometimes we get lost in these dreams, and sometimes we get stuck on just one dream, spending entirely too much time dwelling on what we want, instead of working on how to get it.
It might be a little tough to pull yourself out of a dream, but it's necessary to remind yourself that there are many dreams to dream, so why spend so much time and focus on only one dream? Why put your happiness on hold for something when you are perfectly capable of being just as happy, if not happier by choosing another route, or fulfilling a different dream.
I think it could be kind of fun to create a sort of dream time-capsule. It could be something simple, like a decorated up shoe box that you hide under your bed, or stash away in your closet. I don't mean your dreams that come to you as you sleep (although that would be fun too). When I say dreams, I'm talking about your aspirations, your hopes. When you think of something new you want to do with your life just jot it down on a little slip of paper, with no limitations on how long or short they can be. Simple, quick scribbles or long, elaborate plans with steps on how to get there included.
I'm not sure if referring to it as a time-capsule is the right way to describe it, because you can feel free to look through it as often as you would like, as a matter of fact I encourage you to take the time every once in a while to reread, change or edit your dreams, but don't throw anything out. Make sure that you date them, just so you know that as you dream and envision how you want things, you are somewhat tracking your growth as you take the steps to persevere and make your dreams come true.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I'm falling
What a long day it has been, I just need a moment to sit back and gather my thoughts, a little bit of time to reflect to myself the upcoming and recent events that seem to have taken over a majority of my free time.
I steal moments here and there to just close my eyes and try to make some sort of sense out of what is going on around me, but as soon as I close my eyes, I suddenly feel as if the floor has opened up underneath me, and I'm falling so rapidly that it feels as if my brain is still sitting up in my chair.
This has been going on for as long as I can remember, but I am usually able to feel grounded again as soon as I open my eyes back up. The falling sensation never particularly bothered me, unless it left me feeling nauseated, which has happened to me on quite a few occasions. Usually the feeling was completely gone after I opened my eyes, but the familiar dizziness would sometimes linger, causing me to jerk quickly to try and stabilize my balance.
Lately I have had the feeling happen more and more frequently. At night when I'm laying down, I feel like as I lay back, and sink into the cozy softness of my bed, the sinking feeling just doesn't quit, and this happens with my eyes wide open, like it could be linked to the relaxation of my muscles.
This feeling even happens to me when I ascend or descend stairs, and today it happened to me from just sitting down in my chair here at the computer. The lingering dizziness that seems to be the aftershock of the falling sensation usually only lasts a few minutes, but today I just felt like the bottom was knocked out of me, and if I didn't get somewhere to lay down quickly I was going to pass out. I didn't end up passing out, and as a matter of fact I just kept talking to myself aloud and I regained my composure, but I'm kind of shaken up by the entire experience.
I have had other circumstances that feel kind of similar, and one of them is the dizzy nauseous feeling I get when I'm high off the ground, or when I look down into deep or dark water, and those are explainable I guess, just a simple expression of fear on my body's behalf. I also get the same familiar gut-wrench when I am laying on a water bed, but I just have always described that as sea-sick, since it won't really set in right away, I can get all cozy, but after a while I almost feel as if I have a hangover, and make a mad dash to wretch my guts out.
I think what concerns me the most about it, is that I have a preexisting neurological condition that causes a lot of other problems, and as of now it's been going untreated for nearly a year now, since I've lost my health insurance. I'm supposed to have injections and medication to help with the spasms, the swelling and the pain. My concerns are stuck somewhere in the idea that these two things are somehow linked together, and getting treatment for my medical condition could help curb the spells of the falling feeling. I really have no idea, I could be way off, either way I'm kind of helpless to the entire situation.
I have combed the Internet for something that even comes close to comparing with what I am experiencing, and so far I have come up empty handed. I really hope that I'm being silly about the entire thing, but something inside tells me that things aren't right.
I steal moments here and there to just close my eyes and try to make some sort of sense out of what is going on around me, but as soon as I close my eyes, I suddenly feel as if the floor has opened up underneath me, and I'm falling so rapidly that it feels as if my brain is still sitting up in my chair.
This has been going on for as long as I can remember, but I am usually able to feel grounded again as soon as I open my eyes back up. The falling sensation never particularly bothered me, unless it left me feeling nauseated, which has happened to me on quite a few occasions. Usually the feeling was completely gone after I opened my eyes, but the familiar dizziness would sometimes linger, causing me to jerk quickly to try and stabilize my balance.
Lately I have had the feeling happen more and more frequently. At night when I'm laying down, I feel like as I lay back, and sink into the cozy softness of my bed, the sinking feeling just doesn't quit, and this happens with my eyes wide open, like it could be linked to the relaxation of my muscles.
This feeling even happens to me when I ascend or descend stairs, and today it happened to me from just sitting down in my chair here at the computer. The lingering dizziness that seems to be the aftershock of the falling sensation usually only lasts a few minutes, but today I just felt like the bottom was knocked out of me, and if I didn't get somewhere to lay down quickly I was going to pass out. I didn't end up passing out, and as a matter of fact I just kept talking to myself aloud and I regained my composure, but I'm kind of shaken up by the entire experience.
I have had other circumstances that feel kind of similar, and one of them is the dizzy nauseous feeling I get when I'm high off the ground, or when I look down into deep or dark water, and those are explainable I guess, just a simple expression of fear on my body's behalf. I also get the same familiar gut-wrench when I am laying on a water bed, but I just have always described that as sea-sick, since it won't really set in right away, I can get all cozy, but after a while I almost feel as if I have a hangover, and make a mad dash to wretch my guts out.
I think what concerns me the most about it, is that I have a preexisting neurological condition that causes a lot of other problems, and as of now it's been going untreated for nearly a year now, since I've lost my health insurance. I'm supposed to have injections and medication to help with the spasms, the swelling and the pain. My concerns are stuck somewhere in the idea that these two things are somehow linked together, and getting treatment for my medical condition could help curb the spells of the falling feeling. I really have no idea, I could be way off, either way I'm kind of helpless to the entire situation.
I have combed the Internet for something that even comes close to comparing with what I am experiencing, and so far I have come up empty handed. I really hope that I'm being silly about the entire thing, but something inside tells me that things aren't right.
Manet vs. Picasso
Compare and contrast Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l' herbe to Picasso, Les Demoiselles d' Avignon. Each of these paintings shocked the art viewing public and critics when they were first exhibited, but now both are considered masterpieces. Why were they so scandalous in their time, and why do they not shock art lovers today?
Edouard Manet’s painting Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe was deemed as indecent because it depicts two fully clothed men in the casual company of a nude woman. The woman’s body almost seems to be glowing, as if she’s intentionally intended to be the center focus of the painting. Since she is staring directly at the viewer, holding a firm gaze, it seems as if she is completely unashamed of her lack of clothing. The nude woman also seems to have a slight smirk, almost like she is slightly amused at the shock given to the viewer when he or she first lays eyes on the painting. The woman in the background is supposedly too large and takes up too much spatial area on the picture plane, and Manet’s painting is considered sloppy and not very good to some, because of his obvious brush strokes, and how it appears to be unfinished in some parts of the scene.
Pablo Picasso’s painting titled Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon depicts five prostitutes blatantly displaying themselves to the viewer, as if they are trying to seductively entice the viewer into a space that appears both smooth and splintered, and almost confuses our understanding of the painting. Picasso’s painting was considered controversial in it’s time because of the bold solicitousness of sexual energy that seems to flow throughout the work. His painting style was considered controversial in the sense that he was strongly influenced by Spanish sculpture and African carvings, which is shown by the masks being worn by the two women on the right. Picasso’s hacking brush strokes have been referred to as impetuous and violent and assumed to be based on the idea of African savagery.
Both of these works broke all of the rules of their times, and forever changed the way that nudes would be painted and viewed. In Manet’s time, his painting depicted women as being brazen, or shameless, which is something that was unheard of then. Women were expected to be modest or prudish, and for this woman to be in your face with her nudity and her direct stare was simply unheard of.
Sexual freedom wasn’t a norm at the time when Picasso painted either, especially in the middle class society that most painters in that time targeted as traditional patrons of their works. Since impressionism and fauvism were the current movements, Picasso’s decision to use lines along with cubism seemed like a direct rejection on his part of the popular movements of the time.
Art lovers today wouldn’t be shocked by nude women like they were back then, because of the extreme desire of people today to do anything for some sort of shock value, and due to their thirst to evoke a radical uproar from the people around them, more and more brazen ideas and expressions are getting to be socially acceptable. This social acceptance of art that would have once been considered controversial is causing desensitization to the general art viewing public.
Edouard Manet’s painting Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe was deemed as indecent because it depicts two fully clothed men in the casual company of a nude woman. The woman’s body almost seems to be glowing, as if she’s intentionally intended to be the center focus of the painting. Since she is staring directly at the viewer, holding a firm gaze, it seems as if she is completely unashamed of her lack of clothing. The nude woman also seems to have a slight smirk, almost like she is slightly amused at the shock given to the viewer when he or she first lays eyes on the painting. The woman in the background is supposedly too large and takes up too much spatial area on the picture plane, and Manet’s painting is considered sloppy and not very good to some, because of his obvious brush strokes, and how it appears to be unfinished in some parts of the scene.
Pablo Picasso’s painting titled Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon depicts five prostitutes blatantly displaying themselves to the viewer, as if they are trying to seductively entice the viewer into a space that appears both smooth and splintered, and almost confuses our understanding of the painting. Picasso’s painting was considered controversial in it’s time because of the bold solicitousness of sexual energy that seems to flow throughout the work. His painting style was considered controversial in the sense that he was strongly influenced by Spanish sculpture and African carvings, which is shown by the masks being worn by the two women on the right. Picasso’s hacking brush strokes have been referred to as impetuous and violent and assumed to be based on the idea of African savagery.
Both of these works broke all of the rules of their times, and forever changed the way that nudes would be painted and viewed. In Manet’s time, his painting depicted women as being brazen, or shameless, which is something that was unheard of then. Women were expected to be modest or prudish, and for this woman to be in your face with her nudity and her direct stare was simply unheard of.
Sexual freedom wasn’t a norm at the time when Picasso painted either, especially in the middle class society that most painters in that time targeted as traditional patrons of their works. Since impressionism and fauvism were the current movements, Picasso’s decision to use lines along with cubism seemed like a direct rejection on his part of the popular movements of the time.
Art lovers today wouldn’t be shocked by nude women like they were back then, because of the extreme desire of people today to do anything for some sort of shock value, and due to their thirst to evoke a radical uproar from the people around them, more and more brazen ideas and expressions are getting to be socially acceptable. This social acceptance of art that would have once been considered controversial is causing desensitization to the general art viewing public.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Single
Sometimes we fear that if we are independent and single, there won't be any love. We resist becoming independent because we're afraid that if we do, we'll be lonely, unloved, and uncared for. We suspect that we'll be bored, with nothing to look forward to, and so we resist growing up. The sad part it, we miss out on the feeling of being in love, in love with life.
Love doesn't necessarily have to be a relationship with another person, it could be as simple as being a quality of our own heart. If you ever felt like you were in love, but you had no lover, then you know what a tremendous joy an open heart brings. An open heart responds to the goodness in yourself and those you meet.
"Everyone is single, think about it, we each come into this world as one tiny, little individual. Oh yes, we have a mother and a father, and we may have brothers and sisters and a whole bunch of relatives, but basically each one of us, regardless of our relationship to others, is one human being. We have many types of relationships, which often give us the illusion of not being single at all. Yet if we examine our situation more closely, we see that regardless of our relationships to others, regardless of our marital status, we are still just one little person. Throughout our lives we have playmates and friends, acquaintances, casual contacts, and colleagues. We have lovers and spouses, and various combinations thereof, but still we remain uniquely one human being. No one else ever abides in our skin." Judy Ford
Love doesn't necessarily have to be a relationship with another person, it could be as simple as being a quality of our own heart. If you ever felt like you were in love, but you had no lover, then you know what a tremendous joy an open heart brings. An open heart responds to the goodness in yourself and those you meet.
"Everyone is single, think about it, we each come into this world as one tiny, little individual. Oh yes, we have a mother and a father, and we may have brothers and sisters and a whole bunch of relatives, but basically each one of us, regardless of our relationship to others, is one human being. We have many types of relationships, which often give us the illusion of not being single at all. Yet if we examine our situation more closely, we see that regardless of our relationships to others, regardless of our marital status, we are still just one little person. Throughout our lives we have playmates and friends, acquaintances, casual contacts, and colleagues. We have lovers and spouses, and various combinations thereof, but still we remain uniquely one human being. No one else ever abides in our skin." Judy Ford
Life as a Movie
No doubt about it, we all have a story to tell that is worthy of the silver screen. That's life...agony and humor juxtaposed with pain. It gives us depth; it gives us perspective; it makes us think of the great heroines and heroes, and the stories they have told us.
Some days, thinking of it in that way makes it easier to get out of bed and keep life's disappointments and the daily ups and downs in perspective. Then, no matter whats happening on the periphery, we can stay detached, as if we're sitting surrounded by an audience watching the stories of our lives unfold.
When we're in the middle of heartache, we're like any great actor; we have to go into the pain totally and express it fully. In doing so, we begin to heal, and it's when we don't express the pain that our life becomes a continual drama. When we are finally able to acknowledge our situation, it is then that we are able to rise about it and turn our heartbreak into heartwarming victory.
We can be in pain and know that something positive will come out of it. When we view our life as a movie, we can play our role well, but not get stuck in it or typecast. Like those great actors, we trust that sooner or later another good role will come our way.
Great literature, poetry, and movies are filled with broken hearts and shattered dreams. Beautiful love stories don't necessarily have happy endings, and still the resilience of the human spirit is amazing!
When you are having a bad day, step back and observe what's going on around you. Watch what's happening as if it were a scene in a movie. From this perspective, you'll have a more objective view and you're likely to feel less devastated. Too bad I just can't take my own advice.
Some days, thinking of it in that way makes it easier to get out of bed and keep life's disappointments and the daily ups and downs in perspective. Then, no matter whats happening on the periphery, we can stay detached, as if we're sitting surrounded by an audience watching the stories of our lives unfold.
When we're in the middle of heartache, we're like any great actor; we have to go into the pain totally and express it fully. In doing so, we begin to heal, and it's when we don't express the pain that our life becomes a continual drama. When we are finally able to acknowledge our situation, it is then that we are able to rise about it and turn our heartbreak into heartwarming victory.
We can be in pain and know that something positive will come out of it. When we view our life as a movie, we can play our role well, but not get stuck in it or typecast. Like those great actors, we trust that sooner or later another good role will come our way.
Great literature, poetry, and movies are filled with broken hearts and shattered dreams. Beautiful love stories don't necessarily have happy endings, and still the resilience of the human spirit is amazing!
When you are having a bad day, step back and observe what's going on around you. Watch what's happening as if it were a scene in a movie. From this perspective, you'll have a more objective view and you're likely to feel less devastated. Too bad I just can't take my own advice.
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