When a dream calls...

Yesterday I made a new friend, Molly Ziraldo who moved to Florence only three weeks ago. Like everyone I meet in these times of medical apartheid she hasn’t had the injections. If you’ve been following what’s happening in Italy, perhaps you are wondering, like I did, why someone would move here, in a time where the government is harshly discriminating against people, to the point where accessing basic services is impossible. It’s a time when many of us who came here from other places are questioning what we are doing here, and what our get out plan is.

But it was her dream to move here, and so she decided to do it, regardless of whatever restrictions are in place. I truly admire this level of optimism, of making the best of things, of knowing that somehow, there can be a way around and that nothing, absolutely nothing should get in the way of following a dream.

Perception is everything. And it is ever changing. One moment I feel as if I have fallen into a deep depression that I haven’t experienced since I was in my twenties. And another day, I can feel as if I am being set free into a joyful new reality.

After I met Molly I walked through the shopping streets, all the flashy designer clothes shops and seeing the signs in the window, knowing that now, I would not be allowed in. Then I had a strangely transcendent feeling; that I had been released from it all. I was part of the sunshine and the streets, but I was not part of that world, the trappings of buying, more and more things.

Courage is called for. I took the bus with a racing heart, as the threat of authority always makes me feel edgy. But I know that no matter what my mental health is paramount, and if that necessitates standing up to their ‘rules’ than I must do it.

Deep surrender and acceptance is called for too. Wherever our souls are called to be, if it doesn’t feel right to our more rational minds, somehow we have to find peace with it, amidst the struggles and challenges. This for me is a learning in letting go, in trusting in ‘God’s plan’ for my life, instead of thinking I can manipulate and magic myself into another place.

And yet sometimes a dream calls and it works out. And we must never lose sight of that possibility.

……….

If you feel inspired to explore your dreams, check out my journal writing book Re-Imagining The World