Dreams
Spring greetings and good vibrations to all who have tuned in here. It is my hope that you all are doing the best you can as we all continue to be faced with isolation and social distancing. Our ordinary routines have been morphed into something out of a science fiction novel. Our daily lives no longer resemble what our "normal" was just a few short weeks ago. Gone are the nights out with friends, concerts, sporting events and graduations. Gone, but hopefully, only temporarily. Holed up in our homes, away from work and family, we dream about what we will do when a new "normalcy" arrives.
Dreams.
Some may call them goals, wishes, hopes and objectives. I love the sound of just "dreams". Romantic and thoughtful, wistful and contemplative. So much more than a goal. Vision boards epitomize dreams (and I realize they can be about goals as well). They capture that moment in time of the soul and what it longs for. What will drive happiness for it. Far too often, we wear the blinders of career and adulthood to simply sit back and dream about things that we wish for ourselves. Things that go beyond accomplishments in the office, Boardroom or portfolio value. These are the ideas and hopes that we think about during the wee hours of the morning when sleep evades our bodies. The thoughts we have as we stare out the window on a sunny day but remain cooped up in our office unable to enjoy the feel of gentle breezes and sun on our skin. The things which appeal to us and where our thoughts go when we have a fleeting second to indulge in a daydream.
Dreams are the thing which buoyed so many of us during our childhood. We played "MASH" on pieces of paper and laid out our dreams for where we wanted to live and what car we wanted to drive. We doodled on scrap paper after tests were complete with drawings that we unique to each of us. We allowed our creativity to come out and laid our dreams onto anything our Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencil would allow. Why then, have so many of us ceased in these dreams and daydreams as age progressed?
I tell my daughters all the time about dreams, being creative and what we did as kids. I tell them that I, a 41 year old man, am still a kid at heart. A consummate daydreamer, a grown man who can spend all day playing Lego's with the two of them. A dad who loves to write stories with them and challenge them to imagine things that push the boundaries of their creativity and make them engage in the beauty that is the inside of their brain. To question things always, but to allow a good daydream to intercede. My oldest is so much like me in her "head in the clouds" mindset. Always thinking up new and creative realms in which to explore, draw and write about. My youngest? Well, the budding scientist in her loves the empirical part of her brain. A daydream for her looks far different, but still, she tries. During this time of "shelter-in-place" I've tasked them both with creating their vision boards akin to what all of us Generation X kids did as we navigated youth and adolescence. Their minds were captivated as pages of magazines were torn to shreds. My smile has been radiant as I watch them and engage with them, cutting out words, phrases and captions that I believe epitomizes each of their personalities.
Somewhere along the shreds of glossy paper, laughter and snipping scissors, they posed the question to me about my dreams.
My dreams have evolved so much since I was their age. Dreams of being a Division I swimmer and going to the Olympics, to becoming a paleontologist or an archeologist exploring ancient ruins in far away lands. The pragmatic side of me in my twenties saw dreams of being a Partner at a CPA firm or a forensic accountant looking to solve crime with my background and training. I had lost a little of my creative nature and was slipping into becoming your "standard issue, boring adult". I picked up photography, immersed myself into writing again (poetry, prose and other), allowed myself to dream about my beloved Sierra Nevada more and gradually, found the wonder and awe that dreams are made of again. I found my 41 year old self reading every night instead of watching television, while blissfully ignorant to Netflix, Hulu and all other "On-Demand" services (I still don't have any of those subscriptions). The books I dive into so ardently revolve around Buddhist wisdom, Hiking, climbing, spiritual growth, philosophy and Mount Everest.
The sadness of the 1996 disaster on Everest has become a subject I've immersed myself in. Devouring books by Anatoli Boukreev (the man I aspire to climb and be like), Beck Weathers, Jon Krakauer, Lou Kasischke, Ed Viesturs and Sandy Hill-Pittman. Listening to their sagas of high altitude heroism and tragedy, it inspires and drives me. Everest; Sagarmatha to the Nepalese. Everest; Chomolungma to the Tibetans. Chomolungma means "Great Goddess Mother of the Mountains". That gives me goosebumps. Always will. It stirs something other worldly in my soul. A divine purpose of sorts. A calling.
A dream.
My dream quite simply, is to climb Everest. To stand atop Chomolungma, kneel and offer my praise and thanks to the spirits and guardians of this "Goddess Mother of the Mountains". To feel the energy, radiance and solace that she emits. To stand on hallowed ground where so many others have lived their dreams as well, and see my own come to fruition. Everest. My dream.
I've given myself ten years to train, learn, gain experience and set a solid mountaineering base before I set out for Kathmandu and Nepal in celebration of my 50th year around the sun. A dream that is so much more than just climbing a mountain and bagging a peak. (There are many discussions in the hiking communities about "Peak Baggers" and "Hikers"; a blog entry in itself for another time by this "Peak Bagger") Everest to me is a spiritual quest. A time to not only climb the highest mountain in the world and to offer homage to the "Great Goddess Mother of the Mountains" but to also visit Buddhist shrines, learn local customs and grow in a way that only a foreign country can teach me.
Every dream is different and unique to each soul. Each is equally important. My challenge to you all is that if you are not allowing your daydreams into your minds regularly, why not? Why not find your way back to earlier days in your life and allow yourself to dream again? To set your goals with something other than career achievement and bank accounts. To task yourself with doing something you've longed dreamed about because of the happiness it would bring you. As my own dream has evolved, I will continue to share the progress on training for it and even the setbacks that are likely to occur and how they've been worked through. Share with me, if you are so inclined, what YOUR dream is for yourself and let's encourage each other. Find someone who shares YOUR dream and engage with them. Challenge each other and immerse yourself in it.
Dream again. Never stop. Watch the clouds float by and see what they look like, tune out during a meeting and then catch up on it later with one of the other "Standard issue adults" who was paying attention. After all, like Jack Kerouac so truthfully stated, "In the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
Dream of your own "Great Goddess Mother of the Mountains" and then go climb her.
"Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures, kill nothing but time."
Namaste, friends...
