A brave little list of dreams

A friend of mine shared a post from a few years back on social media. It was a list answering a prompt, the kind you get tagged in by someone and are dared to reply and reshare. In her case (she is an actress), she writes: ‘It was a dare to “name your top 5 dream roles” things that was going around. It feels like a lifetime ago (thanks, pandemic) but it’s also kinda cool to look back on, because in the 8 years since, I’ve played 2 of my top 5 dream roles (one later that same year!) AND 1 of my 5 “dream roles I’m unlikely to be cast in!” So, I guess, I’ll put the rest of them out in the universe again to see if I can manifest the rest of those roles!’

I loved the story and the pure guts of her sharing that list, not once but twice now, and it made something stir within me. This was a challenge with my name on it. Not a list of stage roles, though, in my case it would be a list of dreams and things I am longing to do or to have happen to me.
It would be a dare to write it down, and subsequently share it. Online.
That’s pretty scary, though.

Of course, writing down your dreams is a scary thing to do. It means owning to yourself all those things you actually really want, without allowing the inner voices holding a party inside you to have their say. For we tend to have a lot to say about our dreams. We judge them for being too grand, too ordinary, too superficial, too unrealistic. We deem that we are not worth something, we aren’t good enough… It’s a broken record I’m sure we all know by heart. Actually daring to admit those dreams to yourself and accepting them completely, is therefore a pretty brave thing to do.

And the next step is scarier and braver still: sharing them with the world.

Why do we need to? Because openly owning them is important. It’s a way of declaring yourself to the universe, loud and clear, it’s a way of saying that you’re serious about this. You’re not just asking any old thing, this is a genuine request. (And that’s why it’s scary: the genuine honesty of it makes you feel naked in front of the world.)

Openly sharing your dreams helps you to really say ‘yes’ to them when they actually arrive on your doorstep in real life. For you have already prepare for that, by voicing them. You are past the stage of ‘I think I want to but I’m not sure I dare’. And from a purely practical point of view, it’s of course convenient if other people are actually aware of what you are longing for. It might help them think of you at the right time when a particular project, idea or question comes up.

That latter bit might seem obvious, but there is nothing silly about the practical and the logistic. To the contrary, all too often we seem to believe that our dreams have to fall from the sky fully developed, without us lifting a finger. As if longing for something badly enough will do the trick. As if it’s no longer a dream if you actually put in some work.

It’s like the guy from the joke in Eat Pray Love who goes to church and prays to God: ‘God, please, please, please, let me win the lottery!’ He goes back to church every day with the same prayer and the same plea, until one day, God, somewhat exasperated, addresses him directly: ‘My son, please, please, please, buy a ticket!’
Having dreams is fine, but you have to be willing to put in a little work of your own, too.

So, here it is: my brave little list of dreams.

(I tried to establish an order of importance, but I couldn’t. My dreams and desires are situated in a wide spectrum of my work and my life, and they are all in their own way important. As far as I’m concerned, you can read them from the bottom up, if that’s what you like.)

Things I would love to do / would love to see happen:

• write a successful non-fiction book about ecological spirituality
• create my own tarot deck (or more than one)
• do more card readings / depth work for other people, on demand
• see my Mendel book series sold abroad and translated (preferably in English but other languages are very welcome, too) and have my work read and appreciated there
• write a children’s book that sells really well and might help launch some of my other projects
• give more lectures about my work
• finish Het boek Seth in a powerful way
• have more artistic collaborations for interesting projects (preferably with some spiritual resonance)
• establish a deeper contact with the power of all creatures animal and alive

… even if they seem highly unlikely right now:

• participate in artistic residencies abroad
• have a place to turn to, either in Scandinavië, northern Great-Britain or Iceland (as in: a place to be at regular intervals, not a downright immigration just yet)
• give a TED Talk
• own a large area of land with mostly wild nature, where it is possible to live in an ecologically sound way without having to become either a hermit or completely self-sustaining