Daydreaming

Copyright 2017 Nancy Barra, "Daydreaming", oil on canvas, 24" x 20" from: Nancy BarraContemporary Art/Arte Contemporáneo

She sat on the rocks, then, she closed her eyes and just dreamed about what she wanted to see happen. Her visualizations were so real that a peaceful happiness filled her heart. She felt like she was in another world, where everything she wanted was possible.

Copyright © 2010 Nancy Barra, "Epiphany", Pastel on paper, 18.5" x 14.5",from:Nancy BarraContemporary Art/Arte Contemporáneo 

   No more a stream of annoying daily challenges, disappointments, trade-offs or unforeseable negative outcomes, no hurt feelings, no guilt, no fear, no low self-steem and no hatred. Only a world where love, joy, unity, wisdom and beauty existed. 

Copyright © 2016 Nancy Barra, "Ancient wisdom", Pastel over watercolor on paper,  12" x 16", from: Nancy BarraContemporary Art/Arte Contemporáneo 

The world behind her closed eyelids was functioning as smoothly and perfectly as an atomic clock. In an instant she could go back to the past and alter what she wanted and then, jump to the future to see the results.

Copyright © 2014 Nancy Barra, "Riding on a Light Beam", Pastel on La Carte Pastel paper, 12" by 15.3/4", from: Nancy Barra Contemporary Art/Arte Contemporáneo

When she told her friends about her practice and how much joy she got from it, they told her in a condescending way that what she was doing was simply “daydreaming” or in other words, escaping reality.

Copyright © 2017  Tiny Buddha in http://tinybuddha.com/blog/when-people-judge-why-its-not-really-about-you/

This got to her. 

Copyright © 2014 Nancy Barra, "Ocean joy"

But then, she realized that every time she daydreamed, 
she came back to reality 
much calmer, happier and energized and could face the daily challenges of life with equanimity and humor. 

Copyright © 2017, Huffington Post

For example, she chose the shortest line in the supermarket to pay for only two items. Suddenly, the person before her could not pay with her credit card, although she insisted there was nothing wrong with it. 

Copyright © 29017 Pinrrest "Stress Paintings"
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The client asked for the manager. The cashier called him. He was busy and took his sweet time to arrive. The line stopped, while the other longer lines moved quickly. "Why this has to happen to me?", "Oh! yea, of course, this had to happen to me. I am not daydreaming”, she fumed.

Now, she began to see these daily annoying situations as cosmic jokes. She thought that she might just be a character in a galaxy game program to entertain superior beings in other universes. In the end, it might be  a challenge between her and that mysterious cosmic generator of these jokes. Therefore, next time she chose to laugh and patiently wait until the supermarket manager came to solve the client's situation.

Before this practice of daydreaming, she always became upset and full of comtempt towards the person creating those delays. After all, he/she was also having a disappointment. "Now I am just playing a game", she thought smiling. 

Therefore, because life is full of these unexpected, unpleasant situations, she continued daydreaming in spite of her friends’ pejorative judgements. 




This time, she dreamed with a world without ATMs , supermarket cashiers, rejected credit cards, high interest rates, inhumane wars, dictatorships, exclusion and ecological disasters. Just imagining such a world filled her heart with intense happiness.

Copyright © 20º7 Pintrest, Images of Paradise, 2edc6699d7e6d3e90dc7c6e75e2e426e

Days later, with her guitar in hand, she came to this conclusion: "If I can function in a positive way in this conflictive and challenging world, I will continue daydreaming as long as possible”. Then she grabbed her guitar, closed her eyes and began to dream happiness to a Rhapsody tune. 

Copyright © 2013, Nancy Barra, "Guitar Solo",Pastel over watercolor, 12" x 20",from:Nancy BarraContemporary Art/Arte Contemporáneo 

Happy welcoming to Alessandra to a daydream world!