Thursday, February 21, 2013

Really dreaming

What are your REAL dreams? I had a magnet on my fridge for a long time that stated: "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" I think it came from the book "Who Moved My Cheese." By Spencer Johnson. The magnet has been relocated by my computer where I can look at it often as I prepare lessons for my kids or write. But really, it is such a different question than "what would you like to do." When most people ask us that, we answer with something in the realms of possibility. For instance, when Josh asks me what I want to do on any given weekend, I usually answer with something like, "Get caught up on cleaning the house," or "go on a date." I don't say, "take a cruise to the Mediterranean " Which is really what I would like to do.
My parents have been fantastic about teaching us kids to follow our dreams. (In fact I think it is my mom that gave me the above mentioned magnet!) I never remember once them telling me that I couldn't do something. In fact they always said, if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.
So I have often wondered why I feel so stuck in my life sometimes. I don't mean that I feel stuck being a mom. I love my kids, but I do have goals and aspirations outside of my family. Yet I have a hard time sometimes believing that I can accomplish them.
I don't feel this way when it comes to my husband though. I think that he should peruse all of his goals and aspirations. The hard thing for him, is having those goals. So a couple of weeks ago, I posed the question to him, "if we won a $500,000,000 lottery jackpot, (which we don't play so it won't happen) what would you do? I don't mean, how would you spend the money, what would you do with your life? You have always told me that you would still need to work, but if you had $500,000,000 and you could work anywhere you wanted, where would it be? If we had that kind of money, you could get any education you wanted, and apply to anywhere you wanted. If you didn't get the job, you could apply over and over and over again until you did get the job, because we would be fine while we waited for you to get the job.
Without a moments hesitation he replied that he would work for Lego as a master builder. My husband has a little Lego studio in the basement, where the bricks and pieces are categorized by kind of brick. He would be an amazing Lego Master Builder! He has been fascinated by the work of Nathan Sawaya who was a lawyer turned Lego artist.
So when I came home Friday and told him that My friend Christal had told me there was a free Nathan Sawaya exibit at the Kimball Arts Center in Park City, the next words out of his mouth were, "look and see what time it opens tomorrow."
We packed up the kids, and made an afternoon out of it!
This is one of Mr. Sawaya's more famous pieces. 


Nathan Sawaya self portrait. 
I found his work to be inspirational,  thought provoking, and very profound. 
I love this photo because Turner always covers his eyes when Josh and I kiss :)


The writer
















You may have noticed a few (hundred) pictures of this piece. It was my favorite, because I dream of being a writer someday. Today I will settle for the outlet of my blog.
It was inspirational for all of us. I asked Josh if he would be interested in doing something similar. His only reply? "I don't have enough Legos!" We started a Lego blog a long time ago where I could post some of his work, yet I haven't really followed through. How do you inspire those you love to follow their dreams?
If you want to see more pictures from the exhibit click here to go our Lego blog!

3 comments:

  1. Made me think what is my dream? If I could do anything what would it be? Loved all the Lego stuff, how long will they be there? (see I am still reading).

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  2. Pick up more every time you go to DI. Ask for them for every holiday. Garage sales have megafinds of legos. Spend your personal free time creating and expanding your artistic style. You can do it! The Lego art was one of our favorite parts of Disneyland, and the store wasn't even inside Disneyland proper. To me a life without dreams, and I mean big dreams, is like not believing in the resurrection. Futile.

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  3. Thanks for sharing. This is such a great idea. I can't wait to do it with the kids. I would have been so sad if I had missed it.

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! We haven't even been (yet) but I know we are going to love it.

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