If one advances in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will be meet with unexpected success in common hours.
Cited in Meditations for The New Age
Moving in accord with one’s dreams could be considered to be a statement of ultimate idealism; and yet, how many of our life situations that have had a lasting impact did not start with a reverie or a dream, or a feeling, even a faraway hope.
In our society, the popular advice is to “dream big” and it will only be a matter of attention, a law(?) of attraction, that will make it happen? Whatever happened to Edison’s observation that invention/success is a matter of [99% perspiration to 1% inspiration?]
Is there not the cruel reality that one’s birth zip code can be seen as a determining factor in one’s life? Or family education level? Or supportive opportunities and available explorations that are given to her/him?
From the perspective of Thoreau’s idealism, I do believe that more success or more happiness (which is not necessarily the same!) can come to us from walking, and deciding our course of actions in accord or in harmony with the aims and goals we outline in our dreams.
Such congruence is necessary so that we do not engage in or be prone to following tangents and dead ends. Such alignment is valuable because it informs the whole picture more fully and completely and allows the pieces of the dream to fit more closely and quickly than the jigsaw approach!
Another piece of Thoreau’s advice comes in here as well, as a complement or as a supplement to one’s need to initially dream… He also said: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” That building of foundations… that is Edison’s perspiration… and it is our willingness to see a project or a dream through to its fruition or completeness.
Thoreau’s idealism here gives way to his pragmatic side, knowing full well that you cannot build a Walden or plant rows of beans without energy, desire, drive, and effort. What is crucial to me is that if a dream holds reality within it, has to give me a clue or some substantial signs that it is good, right, and just… or that it has a noble or holy purpose, or that it has a redeeming or lasting value to others, etc.
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