I am struck by how often people are told as children that their dreams are nonsensical. Listening to Robert Wilson(Victor Meldrew
) on Desert Island Discs this morning.He spoke of how, when he told his schoolteacher who asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, said he wanted to be an actor. His teacher said that was ridiculous because he couldn’t even speak properly.
Some of us are lucky enough to have someone in our lives who really sees and encourages us. Quite often it is not actually a parent who does this.
As our parents are often still caught up in their own unfulfilled wishes and desires and seek to live them through their children.
So the person who ‘sees’ the Billy Elliot in us, or the dreamy, gentle artist or the loving, caring being whose calling is to care for others, may be a relative stranger who, nevertheless, can have a huge impact in our lives through one encounter.
Recently I heard of the impact the seeing of an image of a ballerina had on a little lost and lonely girl living in an orphanage in Sierra Leone.
It sparked a deep longing to be that person.
She became Beyoncé’s dance captain and now lives in the Netherlands and is a principle dancer with the Dutch National Ballet.
And reading that story has sparked me to get back to writing about what James Hillman calls the ‘Soul’s Code’. That which beckons us into being.
We cannot all be famous. But discovering the deep pull of that which wants to be manifested through us in this life can bring us a sense of purpose and joy.
Judy Hanmer
Really appreciated your contribution to the SMN panel last night. Hearing an Irish voice always gives me a warm feeling, bringing memories of five years spent in Dublin where it seemed so much easier to be truly myself. Now, in old age, despite having good friends and belonging to several groups, some of which I set up, I find the quest for understanding a very lonely one.