by Bayan AlMasri
Like every single thing in our lives, dreams have changed meaning over the course of our existence. There was a time when dreams were nothing but random occurrences that happen in our sleep. It was simpler back then. Even when we grew up just a little bit, dreams also only meant the most catastrophic beliefs – your hopes and aspirations for the future. And we never stopped. The future is all we saw as kids, constantly, and it was exhilarating. Perhaps it’s all the time we spent dreaming of a later on that turned us so bitter and delusional upon growing up. We were allowed a vast space, an endless space, where we could imagine anything into manifesting and existing into that void. Then time and time again, reality did not match that picture.
"When we stop dreaming, nothing can ever change."
Suddenly, we learn and use words like ‘cognitive dissonance’, a minute of pure agitation. Suddenly, it takes far more than a pretty picture in our head to be somewhere we desire. Suddenly, dreaming becomes our enemy, as we’re filled with the harsh truths and obstacles that destroy it. Suddenly, we stop dreaming.
I think we all forgot one very vital thing when we halted the more ethereal aspects of our thoughts. We forgot that dreams sharpen our focus. Without dreams, how do we know what the deepest, darkest parts of our hearts desire? How do we give ourselves what we truly want and need, or attempt to, when we aren’t sure what we’re looking for? When we stop dreaming, nothing can ever change. Nothing can ever happen. We can’t find a treasure if we don’t think there is one.