the windows in Galway

Tags

#jjcommunity, dreams, Galway, imagine, Ireland, Mystery Tour, photography, photos, travel, windows

Galway is one of those wonderfully colorful cities that attracts locals and tourists alike.  On my recent trip my gaze was often drawn upwards at the eclectic selection of windows that adorned the houses I walked passed. Like people, they seemed to have individual personalities and I enjoyed looking for them as I walked by.

In doing so I couldn’t help but think about how people say ‘that eyes are the windows to your soul’ and wondered if it then follows that windows are the eyes into a houses soul- if such a thing exists. And if so what would the windows of the houses I was photographing say about the home they hid behind their glass.

Still musing these thoughts on the train ride home my eyes caught glimpses of strangers lives lit up in the dark from within. And I remembered how, as I child, I often made up stories about the people I saw, imagining why they were doing what they did and what they would be doing afterwards.

Again my mind drifted, this time to one of my all time favourite fairy tales: The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. I loved the way, with the strike of a match, the wall to the house she sat huddled up to would turn into a see-through veil and display a life that she so longed for and dreamt of.

So maybe windows aren’t just the eyes to the soul of a home, but maybe they can also be an aperture into a world of fantasy and dreams, one that inspires to create and imagine – even if only for one’s own enjoyment

quippy quotes

Tags

ambition, dreams, Elizabeth Jane Howard, quote, quotes, sunday, thoughts

I’ve got lots of ambitions, but I only ever think of them when I’m lying around in my undies having a snooze

English Novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard (Mr Wrong)

As I was recently flicking through a magazine I stumbled upon this quote and had to laugh out loud. Not only is it clever, witty and more than a little sarcastic, it also fits me like a pair of well worn shoes.

Dreams I have plenty, and even the desire to make them real is there, but that drive that turns ambition from an emotion into an action is sorely lacking in my DNA. It is something I greatly admire in people and strive to obtain myself.

Not wanting to give up on the hope that one day I too shall be ambitious, I tore the page from the magazine and it now hangs by my desk.  But I have to admit that while it still makes me smile, it hasn’t changed me yet ( case in point : I am sitting in my pjs on a Sunday afternoon as I type this – giggling to myself).

deep dreams

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Calvin S. Hall, dreaming, dreams, Oscar Wilde, psychology, psychology of dreams, quote, REM atonia, REM sleep, sleep, sleep paralysis

I didn’t want to wake up this morning. I was so comfy in my bed and a wonderfully vivid dream captured my attention, luring me away from the day, holding me  captive to the night.

It wasn’t any special kind of dream, but it felt like being inside a novel, a story I would enjoy to read. I could feel my feet as they ran barefoot over grass, I even believe I could smell the sun on the flowers.

As I curled up in my bed, my eyes tightly shut my thoughts thoroughly occupied, sounds from outside drifted in through my window, pulling me away from my imagination, into reality. And as I slowly let go of my dream and turned towards the day I felt a little sad, knowing that world I was just in would be lost forever.

Dreams are wonderful things and we all have them, even those who claim not too. But they are funny things as we don’t really know all to much about them.

An average dream can be anywhere between 5-20 minutes long which means we spend about six years of our lives dreaming. So why can’t we seem to hold on to them, remember them? Well, for one thing brain scans taken while people were asleep show that the frontal lobes, the area that plays a key role in memory formation, are inactive during our REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, our deep sleep.

Another interesting fact about REM sleep is that we are sort of paralyzed while we dream. This phenomenon is knows as REM atonia and prevents us from acting out our dreams, this just really means that our motor neurons aren’t stimulated, ensuring our body doesn’t move, protecting us.

The freaky thing is that this paralyzes can carry over into our waking state. For as  long as ten minutes someone who has awakened from a dream can feel unable to move, this condition is know as sleep paralysis, and can be frightening but should soon pass.

An American psychologist called Calvin S. Hall did research over a period of more than forty years and collected over 50,000 dream accounts from students. The surprising result of these dream accounts is that people tend to experience more negative emotions than positive ones. Why this is, is a little unclear but many researchers believe that this helps us tackle stress.

But the most interesting dreams are the lucid ones, dreams that we can influence and that we are aware of. These are dreams we direct and often remember, but only half of all people can recall at least one instants where they were able to control their dream and only few experience them quite frequently. I seem to be one of these lucky ones.

But for now I am awake and will make the best of the day, maybe wander down to an antiques fair in a little while, or take a stroll on the beach, happy in the knowledge that dreams don’t seem to run out and await us all when we close our eyes at night.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

Oscar Wilde

 

Mailin Head, the most northerly point of Ireland

Tags

Celtic Cross at Clonca, Clonca, cottages, Donegal, dreams, Inishowen 100, Ireland, Malin Head, photography, thoughts

Since I’ve been back from Donegal I have been busy getting things together for my trip to Germany next week. My day-to-day life has been a little hectic and I have had no chance to think, imagine or dream.

But on Tuesday I was still up in Donegal and my friend and I decided to take a road trip up to Malin Head on the Inishowen peninsula, the most northerly point of Ireland.

With the weather not being able to make up it’s mind we packed rain gear, hiking boots and a pick-nick. We opted to take the scenic route and drove the ‘Inishowen 100’, a curvy windy road through hill, mountains, past sheep , tumbling valleys and lots and lots of picturesque cottages.

The closer we got to the tip of Ireland the more we felt the need to buy our very own cottage, not that either of us have the cash to do so, but the scenery invites to dream.

Maybe these photos will inspire you a little too:

Mailin Head, the most northerly point of Ireland

names written in stone

crashing waves of the Atlantic

horizon in the distance

lighthouse out at sea

left over from the wind

a cluster of cottages

an Irish donkey and friend

waiting for a pick-nick

a little farm

dangerous area, a sign at Five Finger Strand

Five Finger Strand boasts the highest sand dunes in Europe

a happy seagull

blue water and lots of sand at the Five Finger Strand

sand dunes at Five Finger Strand

ready to seed

the old church at Clonca (near Cardonagh)

window with a view

climbing snail

celtic cross at Clonca

baby fern

tumble down cottage, a bit of a fixer-upper but maybe affordable

window plant

already broken, now just enter?

a window with a view

a broken chimney

left to rust

rotting away

bad luck?

wee small hours

Tags

BBQ, dreams, Frank Sinatra, music, sleep, Wee Small Hours of the morning

The sun has gone up and the street-BBQ has come to an end. After a night filled with chat, neighbours, friends, food, drink and even some live music it is finally time to give into the wee small hours of the morning and go to bed.

So while the first early risers start to stir in their beds and the morning beckons them back into being, I will drift off into the land of dreams for a few wee hours.

It is 5am, more morning than night, a new day waiting, filled with promise under the pink haze of the sun awakening. But I will let the tinted light soften my reality and cushion my sleep. And while I rest I leave you with Frank Sinatra and his “Wee Small Hours of the Morning”

counting down the days

Tags

dreams, inner child, miscellaneous, plans, sandcastles, summer

In two weeks the semester is over and my summer will officially begin. And somehow the anticipation of this summer makes me feel like  a little school girl again. The excited feeling in the pit of your stomach that makes me smile for no reason at all, the need to draw big red crosses on the days that are passing and all those plans and dreams bouncing around in my head.

There are so many things I want to do and so many projects I have planned that I fear the summer may not be long enough. But  with the promise of warmer weather and a city adventure on the horizon I am sure this will be a summer I will remember.

However as I yearn for tomorrow I must not forget today nor should I neglect my duties that I still have. My students are busy finishing up their projects and deserve my full attention, then there is grading and paperwork that needs to be done.

So I am trying to put my dreaming on hold, anchor myself in today and be right in the now. Hard when your inner child has already packed her brightly coloured  bucket and spade and is impatiently waiting to go down to the beach and play. But she will have have to wait for a little while longer count down the days until it’s time to build sandcastles out dreams.

castles, dreams built of sand

no milk today

Tags

Anatole France, dreams, hopes, hopes and dreams, miscellaneous, music, quotes, random, songs

No milk today, which means no porridge and that means not a very happy start to this cold morning. It may not be the end of all my hopes and dreams as in that famous Herman Hermits song but it doesn’t make the day look too promising either.

As I rummaged around for something to eat and then stood waiting for a slightly stale bagel to pop out of my toaster my mind pondered what hopes and dreams I do have for the day. Nothing as big as saving the world, finding the cure for cancer or campaigning for world peace seem to be on the top of my list, but the hope that I will find the time to buy milk does seem to outrank everything else, closely followed by the dream of a little more sleep.

Of course I hope that my students will learn something today, that what I have to say sticks and that maybe, just maybe it may change their future, get them that job them hope for, spark an idea for a future they dream about or even just help them pass the course, the year, their degree.

My bigger hopes and dreams seem to be on the back burner for the day, patiently waiting for me to find a little bit more time to pursue them, but constantly reminding me with fleeting ideas and nagging thoughts that they are there and won’t be forgotten. After all what would we be without dreams that make us aspire and hopes that drive us on? As the Parisian noble prize winner, journalist and poet Anatole France once said so well:

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream: not only plan but also believe

So I will plan to go to the shops and believe I will find the time and tomorrow my day will start with hot porridge again, a dream I know I can achieve today, making everything else seem  little bit more possible.

 

extra hour

Tags

big bang theory, daylight saving, daylight saving time, dreams, miscellaneous, quote, random, sleep, time, Victor Borge, winter time

Ireland is now officially in “winter-time”, meaning the clocks have been put an hour back giving us all an extra hour. And what a gift that is, to think of all the things that you can do in an hour, you can watch two episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”, have a good long chat with a freind, enjoy a good read, a glass of wine a  cup of tea, bake bread, listen to a CD and even write a blog post.

However most of us use this extra hour for something as mundane as sleeping, we catch up on what we have missed out on during the week, month and sometimes it feels like year. We snuggle down and enjoy an extra hour of cosy warmth and happy dreams. Maybe we even wake up early and smile, enjoying the fact that we have an other hour of blissful peace before the day starts up again. Yes it is something to cherish, delight in and savour. Sadly this present of an extra hour gets snatched away in spring, when are clocks jump forward ripping us out of our dreams an hour earlier than normal.

This quirky habit of changing time is of course all down to daylight saving, making sure we don’t overuse our light-bulbs and save some energy. But for me I take it like the comedian Victor Borge:

I don’t mind going back to daylight saving time. With inflation, the hour will be the only thing I’ve saved all year.

waking up is hard to do

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alarm, alarm clock, dreams, energy, health, hopes and dreams, ideas, Lady and the Tramp, love, power resources, random, reality, rooster, size siz, sleep, thoughts, unrealistic idea, waking-up

This morning when my alarm-clock tore me out of my dreams with its rooster cry, waking up was hard to do. My bed was so warm and cosy that I found it very hard to get up, so I pressed snooze a few times. As I was lying in bed, hovering somewhere between dreams and reality, I couldn’t help but wonder: why is it that I find it hard to get to sleep at night but when the new day calls I try to ignore it with every fiber of my being?

At some point between the second and third snooze it occurred to me that life can be like that too. Letting go of ideas, hopes and dreams can be hard, we hang on to them and fight anyone or anything that tries to persuade us to open our eyes and see reality. And no matter how loud the rooster cry we just keep following them, ignoring what could even be in our best interest.

Maybe giving-up on dreams and goals isn’t really the issue, maybe it’s that we have become so use to following them, that we can’t imagine it any other way. A bit like that crush we have on a someone we will never date, we know we will never have a  Lady and the Tramp moment with them, yet not pining seems so empty. So we keep our un-reciprocated love alive and nurture it, instead of going on a date with a real possibility.

Around the fourth barnyard call I realised that by not getting up I was actually wasting quite a lot of energy by just staying put and trying to keep on dreaming. Instead of using my depleted power-resources to get moving and start the day, make some tea to help with my alertness, I was lingering in a state of tiredness, yet not really sleeping to overcome it. So like that unrealistic idea of wearing a size six dress or becoming a superstar I was frittering away time and exerting myself for something that wasn’t doing me any good and felt quite frustrating.

When I finally gave in to Mr Cock-a-doodle-do, I let go of the idea of sleep and let my dreams evaporate into nothingness, focusing on a new day and what it may bring. Luckily with sleep we know a new night will come with Mr Sandman and his sack full of dreams in its wake, in life it’s not quite so easy.  When we give up on a dream we need to feel good about it, we need to be happy with the decision, and sometimes new dreams and ideas aren’t in the wings ready and waiting. So while it isn’t a good idea to keep following something that will never happen, letting go should only be done with a happy heart leaving us free and energized for something new.

For now I will hold on to my cup of tea and sort through my bag of dreams later, I need all my energy to just make some toast, get through the day and dream of a good nights sleep.

impossible possibilities

Tags

cereal boxes, desires, dreams, Elvis, Elvis Presley, hopes, impossible, Journalist, miscellaneous, pencil pen, possibilities, random, singer, thoughs

When I was small, really small maybe four or five I wanted to be Elvis Presley, not be like him but be him. I loved him so much and could sing all his songs off by heart, I even tried to perfect the lip curl, the hip bumps and manly swagger. All to no effect as my blond-hair-blue-eyed-curly-haired-cuteness always overruled my imperfect Elvis imitation.

But then so did my desire to be a journalist, another dream of mine since the age of four, I have no idea if I thought I could be Elvis the singing reporter or if I was going to lead a double life, writer by day Elvis by night. Anyway, I use to pull up my miniature chair and table to sit in front of the telly and write down what the news was telling me, even though I couldn’t write and understood very little of what was being said. In crafts I would turn cereal boxes into odd looking typewriters and spend hours upon hours taking notes in squiggly hand writing that no one could read, not even me.

I also wanted to have dimples, so I sat for hours in class pushing the pointy end of a pencil, pen or even ruler into my cheeks in the complete and utter belief that one day the indent would stay. I would have been happy with just one but all I ended up with was sore, stained cheeks, but surprisingly no lead poisoning.

Shirley Temple was another idol of mine. I thought that if she could make it as a star so could I. It never occurred to me that she had been at her peak in the 30s and 40s and that she lived in Hollywood. I really believed that if I sat on the swing in our back-garden in Dublin and sang at the top of my voice an agent would discover me and I would be the next singing and dancing six-year-old it-girl.

I never became Elvis or a new Miss Temple, I really don’t sing that well, I still don’t have dimples and a star is only something I see at night and sadly my handwriting hasn’t really improved much either. Today my dreams have changed although being a journalist  and working in the media is the one that has always stayed and I’ve pursued with varying degrees of success.

But when I look back on what I use to believe was possible and what impossibilities I have at times overcome I think is is well worth believing in the impossible and make it possible, dreaming big and defying impossible possibilities.