That’s what some of us say “I have a dream…” while some of us say “I have a desire..”.. There seems to be a difference in the meaning and in the usage of these two words, ‘dream’ and ‘desire’ (thanks to google for the information). Both may mean the same to some while they may mean differently for others.. Personally I know I have used these two words interchangeably albeit unconsciously.

How do we use these words? Here is what occurred to me.. We say ‘Strong desire or Deep desire or Weak desire’ but dream is always a dream and there is no adjective to it..

To me, dream is something that runs when we are awake and perhaps when we are asleep too. I am not referring to something that is a fantasy or just a dream that we have in the night when we are asleep, and which goes away when we wake up.. It perhaps is in line with what Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam said, “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep.” It runs in us like a processor, all the time. Consciously or sub-consciously, we are processing the dream until we see it as a reality. It is not something that is easy to achieve but one that needs careful planning, hard work and the much needed grace to see it happen.

Is a dream always one that comes true? May not and may.. If the dream stays as a thought and with no action, it becomes wishful thinking..

If it does come true then, is a dream a conscious one? I mean, do we knowingly dream about something? Perhaps yes. Some of us dream of something right from our childhood or as young adults or in our adulthood. Over time, we see it coming alive. Needless to say, with careful planning, hard work and the much needed grace..

Are there dreams that we have, be it from childhood or from adulthood that are not realised at all? There is careful planning and hard work but there is also that hidden variable factor, that comes in the way of the dream being realised. Many a time, we are almost there to see the dream coming alive and then it just slips away; and remains elusive. I wonder though, if the dream not becoming a reality spurs us to move to a different direction, and enables us to achieve something close to what we wanted to and yet not that. For most of us, not realising our dream is difficult to digest and stays within us in one of those dark recesses of the mind, and comes up at the most unexpected of times. Does it get resolved or rather dissolved? I am not sure if it does.

Is it possible to dream for others what we dreamt for ourselves? We may but to expect it to become a reality is itself, a dream isn’t it? The other person is not us, neither would their way of planning and working be the same as ours, much less their lot of grace. The fact that our dream thru’ them is not being realised could be two scoops of frustration. Add the other person’s scoop of frustration of not being able to have a dream of their own, because of our dream thru them, then it becomes three too many scoops (of frustration).. These three scoops however may not be as palatable..

Is there a dream that quite unknowing to us, is quietly processing itself within us? The dream, being unknown to us brings in, its own frustrations. We know nothing of why we are frustrated. All we know is that we are frustrated and there is that sense of not having achieved something. And what is that something? That we may have no idea of. However, the roots of the dream gets further and further entrenched deep inside us, deeply rooting itself. We see and feel none of the roots, until one day the shoot suddenly shoots itself; and before we know it, the dream has manifested into a reality, surprising us more than it surprises others.

What is fascinating is the privilege given to us, of dreaming.. In my perspective, what we do with our dream and how we handle that dream being realised or not, depends on how we use our free will. As someone beautifully said the other day, “Free will is our ability to see the choices ahead of us.” In those choices, lie our actions…

As I leave you with your dream, I would also like to leave you with this thought of Howard Gardner, which for some reason rings a visual imagery in my mind, of my own dream –  ‘It is important to be judicious of where one places one’s efforts and to be alert to the ‘tipping points’ that abruptly brings a goal within (or beyond) reach’. (One could replace the word ‘goal’ with ‘dream’)