Positive People Living Dreams

As the sun appeared from behind a cloud, a fragile glimmer caught my eye. A few feet away was a spider web, so delicate it wasn’t even visible until the sunlight hit it just right. In the middle of the web was a tiny spider. A few insects, seemingly small to me yet as big or bigger than the little spider, were trapped in the web. That’s the spider’s food supply, I thought. It diligently builds the web, then patiently waits, and then the nature of life’s abundance provides sustenance.

Those little insects were already flying around before the spider ever arrived. The spider didn’t have anything to do with that. What the spider did, was arrange to catch some of them for dinner. Had the spider done nothing, and not built the web, the insects would have still been flying around, but none of them would be available for dinner.

There is no shortage of small insects. And there is really no shortage of any kind of life’s abundance. Yet for that abundance to useful, it must be utilized in some specific, meaningful way. For the spider, that means building a web to provide a food supply. After all, food is quite meaningful to the spider.

By building the web, the spider gives meaningful expression to life’s abundance. The same dynamic applies on any level. When there is something meaningful to you, it is absolutely available to you somewhere within life’s limitless abundance. And yet it doesn’t just appear because you desire it. Rather, it appears when you express your desire for it through the living of your life. That’s a crucial distinction. For the spider, that means building its web. For me, it might mean building a website, or writing a book. For someone else it might mean studying to become a research scientist or a gymnastics instructor.

We all must build some kind of web, though. The web does not create the abundance, for the abundance is already there. What the web does, is connect us to whatever particular expression of abundance that we wish to experience. And that, in the manner of a virtuous cycle, makes even more of life’s abundance present and available.

As I watched a stiff breeze blow through the web I wondered. What happens when the web breaks? How does the spider feel about that? Actually, I realized, it doesn’t matter what the spider thinks or feels. What matters is whether or not the spider builds another web.

Life’s abundance never ends. Yet our various connections to that abundance come and go. If we mourn their passing too obsessively, then we miss out on opportunities to make more connections. We treasure each connection, not because of what it is but because of the abundance with which it connects us. If there were no insects to catch, the spider would have little use for any web.

What the spider understands is that the insects are always there. So if the web blows away, the thing to do is simply build another one. Sure, it’s a lot of work. Sure, it’s a shame that the old one is gone. But the abundance is not gone. It just needs a new connection.

We can often lose some connection or other to life’s abundance. Yet even when we do, the abundance is still very much there. And what we have is the opportunity to build an even better connection, an even bigger and stronger web. As soon as we do, the abundance flows more richly than ever.

The spider has now eaten all its prey. The insects are gone and it is crawling around the web, re-spinning portions of it, making ever stronger the connection to life’s abundance.

Is it realistic to dream? Or are there so many problems in the world that we cannot expect to dream of a better life, and to work to make that dream real?

Actually, the way I see it, there’s nothing more realistic than a dream you have for your life. Dreams create value. Dreams connect to the part of you that’s alive, the part of you that is unique and has value. Dreams connect to that.

Without dreams you have no meaningful purpose. Without dreams, in fact, there really are no problems. Because what is a problem anyway? How do you know something is a problem? It’s a problem because it gets in the way of the life you want to live. Well, what is it that you want to live? What is it that defines the life you want to live? It’s your dreams. It’s the purpose within you, the things that are important to you, your vision of how life can be when it’s at its best.

That’s what a dream is. Dreams are unrealistic? NO! Dreams are the core of your reality. Dreams are the standard by which you evaluate everything else, the standard by which you decide what’s desirable and what’s not.

That being the case, here we are. We’re in a world full of problems. Debt. Unemployment. Disease. War. Terrorism. On and on and on. Problems.

So what’s the best response?

Is the best response to whine and cry about it? Is the best response to give up because it’s so overwhelming? Is the best response to blame other people and get angry about it?

Or… is the best response to do something positive, to reach within yourself and connect with what you truly want to do, and with how you truly want to live, and to find a way to get it done?

The way I see it, the best response is to make use of whatever situation you find yourself in, to make use of the world in which you find yourself.

Are dreams realistic? I don’t know of anything that’s more realistic than what’s truly meaningful to you. Because without that, nothing else matters. Realistic doesn’t even have a definition if you don’t have a purpose. Realistic doesn’t matter if there’s nothing meaningful in your life.

Are dreams realistic? They certainly are for me. The dream of living a life of meaning is in fact the basis of all reality that I can experience. I can’t speak for anyone else. But for me, dreams are absolutely realistic. I hope they are for you too.

The Power of Ten Billion Dreams