Inspired by a Gloria Steinem quote

Gloria Steinem has a lot of great quotes but this was one I hadn't seen before.

Do you ever read something and feel like you’ve been gobsmacked over the head with a nerf bat? 

No? Yes? It seems to happen to me A LOT!

It could be because of how much I read or it could be because I believe the universe drops me (and you) nuggets of insight when we most need them.

I was flipping through a magazine looking for collage images when I spotted this quote by Gloria Steinem:

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

- Gloria Steinem

Dreaming is a form of planning!??

For this overachiever and productivity expert who loves a good plan, I realized how little planning OR dreaming I’ve been doing since we moved to Colorado in search of a new home. Nothing has felt certain or stable, it’s been impossible to plan.

Nothing has been stopping me from dreaming, except me of course.

My husband and I have done a fair bit of dreaming and planning since November when we decided to sell our house in California and move to Colorado. We bought a house in Colorado and have been impatiently waiting for our move-in date to be solidified. I am so excited to say we finally have a date when all our stuff will arrive at our new front door, woo hoo!

But I haven’t allowed myself to dream about my business or my creative work. I’ve gone into pressure and self-judgement mode, just “git ‘er done”, "head down tail up" as my stepdad used to say.

This is not my normal state of existence. I need a lot of quiet, creative dreaming time, alone and with others!

Here's what shifted for me when I read this Gloria Steinem quote:

1. My whole body relaxed and opened up.
2. Suddenly I could feel possibilities opening up where before I felt dead ends.
3. I let go of holding on too tightly to everything, including fear.
4. I made time to journal. I went to a local coffee shop with my journal and some brand new glitter markers to do some deep dreaming about what I want the rest of my year to look like.
5. My biggest take-away from the journaling: I don’t need the dreams to be clear. Instead of being the dream-maker, I get to be the dream catcher and all the dreams to come to me (which is usually the only way they come anyway.)
6. I need to get OUT of action and back into dreaming, which leads to plans, which lead to productivity, which leads to Minette being happy, grounded and fulfilled.

Number 5 on the list inspired this week’s visual journaling pages you see pictured below. Sometimes these simple pages pack a punch. While I love creating complex, layered mixed media stories, today I needed glitter and simplicity. It's amazing what you can creative intuitively with paper and playful markers, especially while sitting in a coffee shop on a snowy spring afternoon :-)

I'm sitting with this idea of being the dreamcatcher and releasing the responsibility of always being the dream-maker. My dreams are there, I need to stop chasing or forcing them and allow them to find me!

In closing, I invite you ask yourself the questions: am I giving myself the time/space/permission to be the dream catcher? Or are you like me tending towards overwork, worry and get it done energy? 

Either way, I'd love to hear what you thought about Gloria Steinem's quote. Have you ever considered planning and dreaming to be the same?