Dream a little dream...

I love dreaming. Dreams come in many forms. They come in day dreams. Waking dreams. They come in passing thoughts. Fleeting images, stimulated by sometimes totally unconnected events. They come when we sleep, sometimes to be remembered, sometimes not. Dreams feed us. They feed our spirit, our soul. Dreams can lead to great folly, or to great deeds. Dreams move us, one way or another. When we block our dreams, we become stagnant, unmoving, or moving very slowly collecting dust.

I just finished reading a book by Neil Gaiman, called Stardust. Yes, it is the same as the movie, however, it must be said that while the movie is very good, it is extremely different from the book. This comes as no surprise I am sure. I imagine the movie likened to an alternative reality, another possible way that the story could have happened, but in the end, I still prefer the book (although I saw the movie first and surely I will watch it again with great joy).

Having quite a feisty passion for old folk lore, mythologies, legends and modern spins working with the old into the new; I can say that this book certainly stirs up my dreams. This book has fed me, such as food does for our bodies, it has reminded me of my own inner light and the light that is within all that is part of this world.

I think what inspires me most about this book, is not in the story itself, but in Neil's gratitude, which also reminds me of a little paper book I found in my couch cushions while finishing up reading the book. But first I must share Neil's gratitude.

"Acknowledgements."
Neil writes, to us, the readers: "First and foremost, my thanks to Charles Vess. He is the nearest thing we have today to the great Victorian fairy painters, and without his art as an inspiration, none of these words would exist. Every time I finished a chapter, I phoned him up and read it to him, and he listened patiently and he chuckled in all the right places."

I know who Charles Vess is and truly his art is inspiring. But really what touched me so much about this statement is the idea of inspiring someone so much that that person should share each leg of the journey as it occurs in the creative process. The creative process can be such a vulnerable and private process. Such an honor is that. It leaves me with a feeling of awe that a great story teller should draw his inspirations, finding his dreams stimulated from the many images produced by the artist.

After reading this book, which I have not been able to put down for days, I am already feeling the build up of energy, the inspirations, my inner muse, waking up, and dreaming, preparing to use this new fuel to help push along my own creations. I always find the creations of others as well as the gratitude expressed from one person to another, helps push me to push myself to try my best to produce my best and see where I can go next within my own creations. I love the experience, the journey that it takes to hone my own skills. My goal is to wake up inspirations in others, such as Neil Gaiman has woken in me on account of what Charles Vess woke in Neil.

Interesting, isn't it? The process that is...
Where would we all be without each other?
I have such gratitude that you exist.
Whom do I speak?
Why you! The reader!
Because as I said, where would we all be without each other?
I have such gratitude for the process, the journey, and I can't wait to see what happens next in this adventure we call life.



Magic Words

"In the earliest time,

when both people and animals lived on the earth,

a person could become an animal if he wanted to

and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people

and sometimes animals

and there was no difference.

All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance

might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

and what people wanted to happen could happen--

all you had to do was to say it.

Nobody can explain this:

That's the way it was."

- - after Nalugiaq

Edward Field, 'Songs and Stories of the Netsilik Eskimos
Quoted from Green Man Press