“Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.” – Vincent van Gogh, painter of the famous Starry Night
Dreams can be so vivid.
The details are as sharp as a film in HD, and your senses are on overdrive. The scents are distinct, the sounds are piercing, the colors are vibrant and the slightest touch can send shivers down your spine. Even the words echo ceaselessly until it’s all too much to bear.
Dreams can be nightmares, too. Not the kind where you wind up giving a presentation at work naked or where all your teeth fall off. Nightmares can be sorely realistic, and can have such a high potential of being actualized in real life. You experience the worst that could happen with painful accuracy. Soon after a seemingly never-ending episode, you wake up in cold sweat, and let out a huge sigh of relief. It was just a dream, you tell yourself. An unfortunate REM sleep that got out of hand.
But what happens when the said nightmare transcends to reality? What if no amount of self-pinching can help you escape the realness of the situation at hand?
The simple answer is that of course you’ll get through it. You’ve been there before, remember? You’ve faced the same demons and experienced the same affliction. Only this time, you have the power to control the situation. You aren’t lying hopelessly in your sheets, you are living it. It is inevitable that you may struggle to find the grace and humility to come out of it with your dignity held high, but even if you fail, you know you went through it anyway, and survived. We are but humans after all.
And when it’s over, you will laugh yourself silly when you realize it’s not really over. There is a promise of tomorrow. There is another sunset to watch and a sunrise to catch. Another lesson to learn, a book to read, a tear to cry, a breath to take, and a dream to dream.
It’s all just a matter of perspective.
