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The Double Meaning behind the blog title 'Dream Follower:'
First, for 14 years I was a ballroom & social dance instructor, and have studied both leading and following. I feel that learning to follow is full of nuance and is often misunderstood. I made it one of my personal goals to become a really excellent follow on the dance floor, and will probably talk a lot about the art of following - both in and out of the context of dance.

Second, I am a huge fan of author Michael Ende, probably best known for The Neverending Story. The book is incredible, and the first film captured some of the essence. (Please don't watch the other two films...I urge you to read the book though!) Anyway, at least twice in my life I have been caught in a storm of my own indecision, and my inner Moon Princess yelled to my inner Bastian...'Why don't you do what you dream?' I tear up even now as I write this little blurb. The tension between being practical, keeping my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds (at the risk of compromising my inner vibrancy, true self, and who knows what else)...and reaching for my true dreams (at the risk of losing everything) is still a very real struggle. In fact, one of those struggles lead to my 14 years of teaching dance, so we can see which voice won the battle that fateful day when I was staring at the want-ad...

And so I strive to be two kinds of Dream Followers in my life. One has to do with connecting with others, and the other has to do with connecting with my inner Moon Princess and the world of possibility that opens when I do...

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Ode to the Blank Page and the Blinking Cursor

The imagination skips, delights, stymies.  
There are untold realms of thought, flights of fancy.  
There is no limit.  
Where to?  Where to?  
Now what?  Now what?  
Innocently blinking all the possibilities and yet none.  

There can be depth, there can be tall tales, there can be truth, or falsities.  
There is only all of forever and no time like the present.  
This one blinking moment, this one blank page, 
These empty moments of reflection, these echoing vast chasms of randomness, 
The long hallway of elongating possibilities, the daunting thought of choosing just one path, 
Laying one brick down, pulling one word at a time.  

The action of typing, deleting, a thought begins and is erased, 
In the span of time between the thought and the key stroke, 
Self-doubt creeps in and you remain…
The forgiving, patient, unjudging blinking cursor…
If only I can learn your lesson.  

Seize the moment, type away, type nonsense, type gibberish.  
Type profound insights, type myself into existence, 
Reinvent my spirit with charming skills, 
Reinvent and co-create a fantasy more delightful and more engaging, 
Escape my personal eye and accusing finger.  
There is no should here, only could. 

Type what you will, at your own risk!
Beware the joy!  Beware the bliss!

And whether you share it or keep it tight, 
You and I know there is an infinite blinking abyss…
Fall into myself, discover what’s been left behind, 
Uncover the hidden fears and invent solutions to made-up knots and problems. 

Self-indulgent, perhaps.
Or perhaps in all senses it is touching self.  
What are we if not ideas, dreams, fears, fantasies, and goals?  
We can only articulate to some degree, but in whatever degree we can articulate, 
Thus we embrace another wrinkle, another layer, and an alternate real self. 

There are dark and light aspects, 
Yin and yang, 
Joy and sorrow, 
Fear and courage, 
Shame and guilt, 
Pride and weakness.

Blink.
Blink.
Blink.

Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it…
What is the space between the blinking line?

Beat. Line. Beat. Line. Blink. Beat. Line. Beat. Blink.

There is…a parallel universe…hidden among the blinks.
For every word that can be typed, as it is typing, there is a parallel alternate keystroke.
What is that other girl day-dreaming tonight?
Is there a mirror we can both touch?
Just on the other side when I see a line, does she see a blank? Is she a half-sec ahead or behind?
Would she giggle to see me?
My sister in possibility…

I hope someday we meet…

6 comments:

  1. Brilliant.
    Hope you don't mind, I shared part of the poem and a link to it with the kingdom. You might see a few new people stopping by to say hello today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't believe you let a friend use blogger.

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    2. It's not his fault.
      WordPress already had a Dream Follower, and wouldn't let me use the title...
      I looked up their blog and it is practically unused. *sigh*

      Wish there was a way to buy/oust/vote or some other way, but I didn't want a bunch of numbers...maybe there was a way, but I'm such a noob I couldn't figure it out and blogger made it easy. :-P

      Delete
  2. *squeak* I don't mind!! Glad you like it...

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  3. thank-you .. I found you through djmatticus

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  4. Thank you for commenting! djmatticus is the bomb diggity for encouraging me to start and even more so for sharing a snippet of my poem. :-D
    I'll look you up!

    ReplyDelete

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