Tag / dreams

by Janet

Alternate Universe

There were times in the past when I feared that my optimism looked too much like “fantasy” to some. Now, with the great divides that have literally split our world apart, I fear that my optimism is much more real than the reality of some.

With each day, I am more and more amazed at how bizarre things have gotten. To make it even weirder, many of the people from these opposing worlds, who argue online day in and day out, are not even real people, they are bots. 

Excuse me… but where am I and how did I get here? And how do I get home?

I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe.

Anonymous

BUT, that’s not what I want to talk about. First, I wanted to share my newest illustration—a mix between stained glass and something else. I had been working on a rather large poster, and decided it was getting too crowded and chaotic, so I split it into pieces. This particular image is about a third of it.

I actually came up with the title Alternate Universe because the background reminds me of planets that are windows to the outside world. The woman is from a stained glass I saw online, and the instruments are a compilation of various jazz art pieces I found. I’m thinking of trying out a little cubism mix, but that’s another story for another day.

What I also wanted to say here is that working on the illustration made me think about dreaming. I mentioned in an earlier post that a cool thing about my age is that “I’ve begun to find dreaming and imagining almost as exciting as real adventures. Sometimes it’s just a state of mind we’re searching for, and we can attain it anywhere.”

After I published that, I thought about my statement and realized that it shouldn’t be an “age thing.” And I didn’t mean that dreaming can take the place of real authentic life. That would be almost as weird as a bunch of bots fighting over which side is right. Ha!

What I meant was that so much of what we crave or yearn for is a feeling, or a state of mind, but we misconstrue it. For example… we desire a vacation because we’re tired of working too much and we want to “feel” refreshed. I’ve felt that way before. I’ve also gotten to my destination only to experience new frustrations because the “refreshed feeling” that I craved was lost somewhere under the stress of unexpected expenses for the trip.

Being happy, and content, and at peace with the world is not something that’s for sale. It can’t be bought. It’s inside of you.

I think I took the long way to say it, but the point I was getting at is that I believe that dreaming, or imagining, is a gift—another one for my series Miracles Every Day.

When you allow yourself to dream, it’s like being a kid again. You forget everything you’ve ever heard from those no-can-do people in your life. You tap into that happiness and contentment that’s inside of you, because you take doubt, fear, restrictions, and limitations off of the table.

You open your heart and your mind, and you remember what you knew all along…. that anything is possible.

And that, I believe, is a miracle.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed my image and my words.

Until later,
—Janet

by Janet

Pink Noise

Never let the noise of the world overpower the stillness of your soul.

Merriam-Webster has a cool little tool called Time Traveler where you can find the words that were first seen in print in the year you were born (or in any year for that matter). I picked a couple from my birth year to get an idea for my featured image: Pink Noise and Lip-synch.

It’s more literal than abstract, obviously, and in more ways than one. The lyrics that are being sung (or should I say lip-synched) are actually the first verse of Pink’s song, What About Us. La-da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da, Da-da-da. Who knew? If I had to guess I would have said it was De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, by Sting. Ha!

I didn’t know what pink noise was so I had to google it. Sometimes I’m amazed at the number of things that I’ve never heard of. Honestly, I think that one of the best things about getting older is the fact that life seems to slow down… and we finally have the time (or maybe it’s patience) to stop and explore our weird curiosities.

I found out that I love pink noise. While white noise is the sound of a whirring fan, a hissing radio, a humming air conditioner, or the static on a radio or television, pink noise can be found in nature—like the beautiful sound of wind, steady rain, rustling leaves, or even the beat of a heart. And pink noise is a good sleep aid. I imagine I’m preaching to the choir though, and you’ve probably already heard of pink noise, since it was first seen in print in 1961. Wow, look who’s finally catching up?

I had to ponder whether or not any of this was post-worthy, because it all seems a little silly and frivolous, but I decided YES, yes it is. Life is all about balance, and there’s a lot of angry and scary noise in the world right now. Sometimes we need to be silent, sometimes we should whisper, and sometimes we want to scream. But, every now and then, we just need a little pink noise… to soothe our soul… and help us dream.

Amen to that.

Anyway, that’s about all for now. Thank you for reading! I hope you found something enjoyable or noteworthy here.

Until next time…
Sweet dreams.