Dreaming Wide Awake

Blog, , , , , ,

We live, while we see the sun,
Where life and dreams are as one;
And living has taught me this,
Man dreams the life that is his,
Until his living is done.

Segismundo’s monologue in Life is a Dream by Calderon de la Barca explores the belief that we live in some kind of virtual reality state. The same concept was presented in The Matrix movies. We are living in one state dreaming the state we think we are living. It sounds like Inception too: a dream within a dream, within a dream. Flash back to Alice in Wonderland as well. Reverie is a dream state, but it doesn’t have to bring only ethereal consequences. You have the capacity through symbolic interpretation to dream wide awake and achieve earthly results.

 A similar take is presented in Animal Dreams, a book by Barbara Kingsolver. The dog is sleeping and making sudden movements while apparently dreaming. Curiosity leads to infer in what is the dog dreaming about. According to the characters in the book, the dog dreams about the things he did that day. If we as humans dream about only the things we did that day we are no different. We would only have animal dreams.

Erwin Raphael McManus brings the other side of the coin to exploration in the book Wide Awake. McManus described the potential we all have to turn our lives in an adventure in which we live our dreams and see them as goals and motivators to thrive. We can dream with our eyes open. We can use our God-given talents and imagination to create a future in which we can give purpose to our existence.

Maybe our dreams are also given by God. The story of Joseph shows that no matter how bad things look now, those dreams we had are yet to pass. We are not only dreaming about the past but also about the future. He went to a lot of difficult situations but was faithful and his dreams came alive. There is a plan in a future we are yet to discover in which we fit and participate actively turning our lives in an adventure.

Never stop dreaming. Living in a dream state is not a bad thing. Certainly, we all need to sleep and it is possible that we dream in our sleep. However, dreaming wide awake create life, beauty, and change. Art, music, architecture, technology innovations, inventions that facilitate our daily endeavors, all of it is a product of the imagination of some who refused to stop dreaming.

100 Years From Now

Blog, , , ,

FreedomFast forward to 2114. New years eve 100 years from now. A completely new generation is ready to celebrate. If we went from horses to space shuttles in 100 years it would be interesting to imagine how the future holds. Marty McFly from Back To The Future made it to 2015. It really doesn’t look like that although we have many things they didn’t think about back then. Nevertheless, we probably won’t make it to 2115, but would someone remember you?

Probably nobody will remember you. The truth is that most people is forgotten 40-50 years after they die. Only a handful of people remain remembered from a long time. Would you be one of them? If so, how do you want to be remembered? Do you want people to remember the things you did? Maybe you want them to remember how you related with others. Maybe both. What would you like people to remember about you?

While you think about that I want to wish you a very prosperous 2015 full of achievements and treasurable moments. Make the best of each moment. Let the people around you know that you love them and that you care for them. Be the best at what you do and enjoy it. Happy New Year!

The Past and the Future

2 CommentsBlog, , , , , , ,

IMG_4117I began playing with vines, leaves, and the figure resting within in a new relief. In the process I remembered this old sketch. I didn’t date it but I believe it is about 12-15 years old. It seems like that image was in my subconscious waiting the right time to reveal itself.

IMG_3861The new collection is building on those elements. This new piece not yet casted or named is among the first pieces to integrate the elements of the sketch. The past and the future come together. It is interesting to see how it develops. It is my hope to have a new white marble collection ready for show in the fall of 2015.

Meanwhile as I work on new pieces it is always fun and refreshing to look back at those old sketchbooks. They are a treasure chest of ideas in expectation. Even those doodles we often think are useless could become a piece of art someday. No idea is lost. We just have to look at the past with new eyes and focus on the future.

I Want Something Else

4 CommentsBlog, , , , , , , , , ,

Bas-Relief Sculptures

Several years ago I began teaching children with disabilities. I entered an uncharted territory and had no idea what to expect. It was an adventure from the start. I learned a lot about human behavior during those years.

“I want something else!”

That was the cry of one of my students. She repeated this words until she was screaming her heart out. Nothing could calm her down. Until her attention was diverted she would continue claiming she wanted something else but she would never say what she wanted. In multiple occasions I took walks with her trying to calm her down. During our walks she asked the same set of questions in the same sequence several times, “What are we doing after that?” She wanted to know what she was doing next after the walk and five or six events after that until the agenda of the day was completed.

6U4A3850

Wind by Ivan Tirado

I don’t think we are so different from her. We often want something else. You heard this before, “The grass is always greener on the other side”. We are always searching for something different from what we have, but we can’t tell what it is. We often want to know details of the future ahead of us. We want to be certain we covered all the bases. We want to make sure we are in control. The truth is we never are. We may claim we are but we are not even knowing what the future holds or knowing what we want, we are not. Honestly, that is a good thing.

Wanting something else provides an opportunity for hope. It allow us to consider the difference between need and want. Not being in control allow us to be thankful of the now. The past teaches us how we got here, how to live today, and to work hard for a better future. We can’t be idle but constantly moving towards our goals with the compass of hope.