Getting Stuck in Dreams

I am a writer. At least I think I am. This blog is where I have an opportunity to express myself about the things I'm passionate for. I think I am a writer because I love to write,(good or bad, if it's written...the person writing it is a writer). However, sometimes when I look back on some of the articles here, I see nothing but crap...."Who would want to read this?", I ask myself. "What end of the crack pipe were you smoking Skaggs when you typed that jewel?!" I have been told my random thinking is a plus in the expression of what concerns me. Sometimes my randomness is too random even for me...it's those crap articles I delete so some poor soul won't have to endure a bad read and waste 10 minutes of his life......I mean, taking a trip on LSD and seeing a purple rabbit riding a unicycle through a maze of rainbow colored mushrooms makes more since than some of the fiasco ramblings I've posted here!! Nonetheless, I'm a writer!
One of my fav authors, Donald Miller, talks about being a writer. He makes the point that a writer doesn't have to experience anything in real life in order to write a story. A writer can create a story in his or her head and pen it without actually experiencing what he or she is writing about. Why? Because writers, for the most part, are dreamers and anything dreamed of can be written about. How well it's written determines whether there will be a paycheck for the effort.
I am a dreamer. I have always been a dreamer. I can create all kinds of worlds in my head. Oddly, I've never written about any of them. I've just dreamed them. Nothing wrong with dreaming in and of itself. Dreams are often the springboard toward achieving greatness. Would we be able to fly across the entire world to any point of destination imaginable had Orville and Wilbur Wright not dreamed of flight to start with? Would we still burn candles today had Edison not dreamed of light made through the channel of electricity? Would we enjoy the comfort of staying warm and covered up while still being able to handle the remote control or drink a can of Coke had that guy not thought of a blanket with arms?.....hence the Snuggie. Personally, I've dreamed of creating a breathable trashbag so every time you throw trash in, you don't have to bleed the air out that collects between the bag and the can....or does such a trashbag already exist? Dreams can be good and positive and can end in beneficial realities. The advancements in technology, medicine, transportation, and the better quality of life we enjoy today all started with a dream.
The dark side is that dreams can be debilitating in that they can keep us from engaging in the real life God created around us to live. Living life to the fullest means for me to be actively involved in and aware of what is going on in my world. Circumstances, whether they are positive or less than positive, keep us alive, moving,...in action. These real life circumstances keep us from becoming stagnant and placid. Navigating successfully and courageously through the circumstances of life is, in part, what puts the exclamation point on living.
Sometimes the dreamer gets stuck in the dream and never moves out of it. I know from personal experience what it is like to get stuck in a dream. Getting stuck and staying there becomes an escape in dealing with reality. Life is tough and the world is cruel. Living in a dream where there is always a happy ending is so much more attractive than dealing with the harsh reality of a less than mediocre life. I thought I had a less than mediocre life..... so I dreamed up worlds where I was always the hero, the man most respected, most successful, most loved, most likely to win an Oscar and I'm not even a professional actor. I am more of what you might call a character. Some would say I'm just a mess.
Eventually being stuck in dreams led to being stuck in a bottle. Dreaming wasn't enough to escape my less than mediocre life....I needed the aid of numbing alcohol to keep my dreams in my head and keep them my realities. I disengaged from real life and with the help of alcohol, watched the loftiest of my dreams become nightmares. Circumstances were never positive, always negative. It took a long time for me to realize that these circumstances were mostly created by my own hand and the more I drank the worse the circumstances. I lost much, the most tragic of which were relationships to those I loved most. Boy! Was I ever stuck!
My turnaround came when I simply had no one but God to turn to and nowhere to look but up. In the lowest part of my ditch and in the middle of my worst nightmare, God through a significant other said, "Richard, you matter to me. I died for you. I want you to live not a less than mediocre life but an extraordinary one. Wake up! Engage in real life and live! Engage in the life I designed for you!"
Today I'm still a dreamer but I am living life also. If I dream of feeding the hungry around the world, my reality says I can go to the local soup kitchen and actually serve the hungry. This is, in a small way, what I mean by being a part of the bigger solution to feeding the hungry around the world. This is plugging in to the world around me and truly living. When I am involved in the reality around me and partaking of my role in it rather than escaping in some lofty dream....I truly am alive. This kind of life keeps me from imploding and drowning in a bottle.
Many today are stuck in dreams (nightmares) and drowning in a bottle or drugs or depression or whatever affliction. They are not living the extraordinary life God designed for them. They need help, love, understanding, a word of encouragement, a push to move them to real living. They need people like you and I.
I don't know how it is with you.....but like a phrase from one of my favorite songs says...."I wanna spend the rest of my life alive!"