‘Stop Dreaming, be more practical’ said everyone. Following the norms of the world would have meant accepting assumptions, prejudices and readymade patterns of everything that surrounds me. Stop believing that anything could be changed for better.
‘Round peg in a square hole’, was laughed at, yelled at and even severely punished for being different. ‘Try to fit in’ said everyone. My early life reinforced this idea where I had to alter myself to fit into an environment. However, as I grew older I began altering the environment to fit around my identity. I let honesty towards self direct me and my actions. Destined on transforming any situation that made me uncomfortable led me to believe in what is right for me and made me more authentic as a human being.
‘My Dream is a Seed whose reality is a blossoming Tree’.
A teacher once told me “Know Yourself”. Self-reflection has made me more aware of my views, thoughts, predispositions, objectives, and sensitivities. It has taught me to identify my talents and strengths keeping my limitations and weaknesses in mind. Knowing myself has allowed me to believe in my dreams. Dreaming has a quality of unfolding in an uninterrupted way, of allowing thoughts to safely brew within a private enclosed space. I am amazed how most of these thoughts have manifested into my reality. So ‘I Dream ON’ and encourage my young one to never stop dreaming. Plant a dream seed, nurture it and watch it transform into a reality from whose branches many more unknown realities surface.
I would like to think of 2016 as a long strand of connected dreams and sleepwalk into 2017 only to explore and manifest new positive realities.The picture taken by Richard Ried
Social Sculpture MA program, site specific intervention, Oxford