Tuesday, August 14, 2012

8/15/12—Daring to Dream

Today's Draw: A Thin Wrapping of Wishes from Illuminate! Life Journey Cards by Linda Clayton. Do you have a dream to look forward to? Have you built a modicum of magic into that dream? Or are you someone who only deals in realistic, well-measured pursuits?


As we approach the midpoint of Self Care Week at The Daily Draw, there's no better deck to use than my favorite yin-energy oracle, Illuminate! And today's draw doesn't disappoint. 

In terms of self care, I think "A Thin Wrapping of Wishes" is calling us to have something magical to believe in and/or look forward to. 

Remember when you were going to be a princess? Or the President of the United States? Remember when you used to practice your Oscar speech or sing into your hairbrush like you were a rock star? Remember how that used to make you feel? Shiny. Beautiful. Special. 

Well, what wishes and dreams do you have like that today? Are you so beaten down by the frog that Prince Charming turned out to be that you keep your dreams tediously realistic and attainable these days? Like seeing your kids graduate high school or moving into a new house?

Those are totally worthy dreams and they're absolutely enough. I'm not suggesting less. But those are things that are going to happen, bar some disaster. Where is the magic? The anticipation? The daydreaming? The succulent garden you get lost in when you think of it? Think back to when you were going to be a PRINCESS! That was wishing!

I'm not suggesting you invest heavily in fairytales. That's why it's a THIN wrapping of wishes. We are, after all, adults. But what is out there at the edge of possibility, yet still in the framework of your jaded mind?

For example, writing the kind of book I want to write and getting it published is a dream for me. But the MAGIC and the far edge of possibility includes my dreams of meeting Oprah, rubbing elbows with celebrities and being much beloved. Those things may never happen, but the sparkle of their fairy dust keeps me motivated and excited about the more realistic part of my dream. Those things keep me feeling shiny, beautiful and special while I work on the sweaty, bloody, hard work part of achieving my dream. 

So what I'm suggesting for today's self-care advice is this....have a dream to aspire to, like writing a book or visiting Europe or hitting all our country's National Parks. But sprinkle it in fairy dust for that extra sparkle—or have a totally separate fairy dust dream that makes you feel special and shiny.  BUT remember which is the dream and which is just window dressing. 

You see, we once dreamed of a white knight coming in, sweeping us off our feet and living happily ever after. And we became jaded against magical thinking when our knight ended up being a farting, fallible plebeian. But that was our own mistake. The REAL dream was getting married. But we attached ourselves to an image of perfection and magic that was really just supposed to be a thin wrapping. Instead of donning a feathery veil to add to the fun while we're waiting to meet the right man, we tattooed the fairy dust into our skin, thereby tainting any result less than Prince Charming.  

So self care is dreaming. And self care can be made more magical with fairy sparkles to help you feel shiny and special. But true self care is remembering the purpose of the fairy dust in the first place, so that when we reach our dreams, we won't dash them because Johnny Depp wasn't there when we arrived. 

The point is to keep ourselves hoping and dreaming and motivated. Having something to look forward to is part of life's sweet elixir, as is the belief that magic can still happen. These are the things that keep us vital, young and alive. We never get too old to lose ourselves in a beautiful dream. In fact, when we stop having those beautiful dreams, we risk losing ourselves in getting too old.  

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