Dreaming ...

Once upon a time there was a man who always slept lying on his back and, whenever possible, wearing his spectacles on.

He wore his spectacles, or sometimes he kept his contact lenses on, because he claimed that by doing so he could see his dreams nice and clearly. Without his glasses the dreams were rather fuzy and out of focus.

He always tried to lay sleeping on his back and not move at all. Because if he turned to his side, left or right, his dreams would fall out of his ears and leave altogether.

He'd be sleeping on his back dreaming that he was on the beach with a beautiful lady wearing the smallest of bikinis and just as he smiled and lay down beside her comfortably on his side she would escape from his ear and he would lose the whole dream.

He tried a few times putting pieces of cotton wool in his ears to stop the dreams escaping. But this did not work, because now his dreams were totally silent. People in his dreams would move their lips but he could not hear what they were saying. It was very annoying especially when the lady in a bikini spoke alluringly to him and he could not make out what she was saying.

OK ... now that I got your attention, and you are possibly sitting there day-dreaming yourself, with or without your glasses on, let's get to the point ...

We often go through life with pre-conceived ideas and notions in our heads based on no fact or evidence whatsoever. We may have views about ourselves, the way we look, our background, our education, status in life or whatever. And this vision of us blurs the whole of our lives.

We feel we are not attractive enough. We are getting a little old perhaps and certain parts of our bodies are moving South where we'd rather they were not. We don't like the way we talk, our accent perhaps, our standard of education or the job we are doing.

Whatever our pre-conceived notion may be, often without reality, turns into a nightmare which blights our lives.

Let us now focus for a moment or two on this scenario I have painted, all too prevalent in many lives.

What do you imagine God thinks about us when we waste valuable time focussing on our imagined imperfections rather than delight in how wonderful we are?

Silly Dreams of Shakespearean origin

We all have dreams from time to time. Some are dramatic and perhaps disturbing, whilst others are easily forgotten or not remembered at all when we wake up.
 
Have you ever dreamt that you were a chicken wearing a pin striped suit to work and they would not let you in because your tie was the wrong color?

Or dreamt that you went to see a hypnotist to cure you of the compulsion to visit hypnotists?

Whilst at the hypnotist you asked him also to cure you of your fear of heights? He did so; and when you woke up you were on top of the cupboard?

No? Never had such dreams?

Well, neither have I.

My dreams tend to be memorable. Last week I dreamt that I was in a marshmallow factory, a bit like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book by Roald Dahl.

Anyway ... I dreamt I was in a marshmallow factory and when I woke up I'd eaten the pillow.

I remember being told off in the morning for ruining the pillow!

The best dreams of course are those that inspire us to greater things. They can be dreams we have when asleep or indeed something we think about when awake and mull over in our minds and spur us into action.

Many a great idea started with a day dream, an inspiration, a word of encouragement ...

The ideal dream is to make life better for someone else. It need not necessarily be a big thing that you do. Perhaps a kindness to someone. A smile. A helping hand.

For when our time is at an end, we should not be remembered for who we have been, but for what we have done.