The Quote Of My Life Brings Joy
In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 4 of 52
Some quotations in life give you a lot of joy.
My father used to say
“I slept and dreamt that life was beauty, I woke and found that life was duty.”
I used to ask my father what is the meaning of this quote.
He told me that sleep is a beautiful thing. It rests your mind and in your sleep sometimes you dream beautiful things that may not be a reality. However, you should enjoy that which is not a reality because it gives you ideas.
Then he told me that a dream should not hinder you. You should always remember that you have some responsibilities in your life and see that you are able to focus on it and not merely dream.
Your day is full of duties. You have duties towards your family as well as your work and you must do it well.
I was too young to understand the deep meaning of what my father said. It was a way of making me dutiful.
Those days I saw a book called Alice In Wonderland. ( If you like you can see the YouTube Video of the story)It was a novel written by Lewis Carroll.
I began to read the novel and I was inspired by how Alice went down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world.
I would begin to dream about falling down the rabbit hole like Alice. There I found gold taps and golden fountains and everything made of precious stones and jewels and beautiful paintings.
This was nothing to do with Alice’s adventures. These were my adventures with some similarities to Alice's adventures.
I found a golden key like Alice had found and started looking for something where the key could be fitted.
I fitted the key in a bottle and a genie came out I told him to take me back. My eyes opened. My dream was over.
I understood that such dreams are fantastic fantasies. They are only for rest and enjoyment. They bring you joy. Once rested one has to go back to reality.
In the world around you, there are a lot of things to be done in your life. You have a family and a career. You must do your duties in your life. It is very important to do those duties as joyfully as you slept and dreamt.
Three versions of the same quotation
When I grew up this became my favorite quote in my life.
Interestingly I found many versions of it. The one by Lord Byron I guess was the original version.
I SLEPT AND DREAMT THAT LIFE WAS BEAUTY; I WOKE AND FOUND THAT LIFE WAS DUTY. — Lord Byron
Then I found a poem
I Slept, And Dreamed That Life Was Beauty
‘I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty; I woke and found that life was duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie? Toil on, sad heart, courageously, And thou shall find thy dream to be A noonday light and truth to thee.’
Then I found a similar quote by Rabindranath Tagore.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” — Rabindranath Tagore
So you see it was deep. First of all, whatever you do should be done joyfully. and secondly, your dreams prepare you for the duty you must conduct where you not only should be steady but also leap forward to do something meaningful.
How did this impact me? My takeaways
⭐Sleep and dreams are good for rest, vitality, and rejuvenation. Without rest, you cannot do your duties well. In a way it closing past chapters, we can write our future without thinking of the regrets, mistakes, and disappointments we all encounter.
⭐⭐ Crawling down a rabbit hole like Alice might be too big a risk in the real world. However, when you do your duties some risk is important to improve productivity, status, and moving forward in life. Though risks are scary, standing can be scarier because without risks and challenges we do not grow in life.
⭐⭐⭐Nothing in life is smooth sailing, as even in your dreams you encounter challenges to come back to life. You wander off and do not know how to come back.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Recognizing our duties by discovering who we are, and accepting ourselves, assures a much smoother ride through our own journey of life and the duties that we do. By listening to our instincts and being a little more objective, we can apply the wisdom we give to others to ourselves.
To wrap up
Service with joy is learning to accept the differences in others. When we celebrate our differences with people life becomes more interesting, exposes us to new perspectives, and opens new worlds, just like Wonderland. Then we can do service with joy as Rabindranath Tagore put it.
“I slept and dreamt that life was beauty. I woke and found that life was duty”- Lord Bryon
I have always done my duty with joy. The quotation has struck me to have a life of beauty with a meaningful and joyful duty.
Thank you, dear Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for the wonderful prompt.
©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2022.
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