Romantic at Heart
On the wanderer's curse — going so far in your dreams that you miss the oasis right in front of you.
The romantic’s failure mode is the inability to live in the present moment that the romanticism was supposed to deliver you to. You imagine the future so vividly that the actual life — the one already here — goes blurry by comparison.
Transcending my dreams
My wants, my needs, my beliefs
To find inner peace
And presence in the present
I’m a romantic at heart
In my dreams, I’ve gone so far
To the point where it hurts my soul
I don’t see what’s right in front of me
To appreciate the beauty
Of the gifts I’ve been given
My mind, a wanderer in the desert
The oasis is here, in front of me
I know, yet I must persist daily
Does anyone else wonder what if?
Maybe it’s dangerous to dream
Maybe it’s better to stay awake
The oasis is here, in front of me. The whole work of presence is just learning to drink from it.
I don’t think the dreaming is the problem. The dreaming is the engine. The problem is forgetting to look up from the map long enough to notice the ground you’re already standing on.
— JTC