Guest Post: Dreamcatchers

by sezinkoehler

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I have the pleasure of announcing a trio of guest posts while I am stateside for a much-needed visit home. If the idea of writing a guest post for Love, Rose tickles your fancy, send me a note! This second post is by Sezin Koehler, author of soon-to-be re-published American Monsters and founder/curator of the hybrid/MONSTER sideshow exhibit.

Chasing a dream is something most people end up putting on the side. Work, family, a mortgage obliges them to focus on these concrete material tools or requirements of modern-day survival.

For some, the mere act of owning a home might be a dream they strive towards their whole life.

For others, like me and many of my friends, our dreamcatching is of the creative persuasion, and the results are often obscure and intangible.

Not that adversity stops us.

I spent the majority of my life dreaming about being a writer. When I developed tendinitis in both wrists as a result of a glorified data entry job three years ago I felt my dream dying. How could I hold down an office job and then come home to write when I could barely move my hands? And how important was this dream anyway? It’s not like I’d make a zillion dollars and be the next Stephen King.

As my wrist injuries worsened the Fates aligned in such a way that I found a part-time job that required no computer time, leaving my mornings free to heal and get back to what I always felt was my real purpose on this planet. For the last 1 ½ years I have been living my life-long dream of being a writer. No, I’m not the next Stephen King and yes it is financially frustrating to not have two full incomes, but each day, each word I write becomes its own reward. I am happier than I have ever been in my life.

And I’m not the only one. Rose, who so kindly offered me this space and your ear, will soon fulfill one of her dreams of illustrating a novel (which, incidentally, is my first novel. Those Fates are hard at work!).

Recently, two filmmaker friends were featured on LA Talk Radio’s Film Courage, and they are yet another example of dreamcatchers in the flesh. Oklahoma Ward and Nicole Alonso decided to dedicate their lives and careers to the art of filmmaking. In their interview Oklahoma mentions how they live and breathe their dream every day of the year, and  this is the only way to make it work. I agree.

Life is not about being famous or rich, it’s about doing what you love, “blooming where you are planted”, as our friend Tara Agacayak says.

I remember my life before I started living my dream. It was Dorothy’s black and white world before the the whirlwind that plunked her in Oz. Now I experience my life in technicolor, high definition, my arms linked with other kindred spirit dream chasers as we walk our respective paths.

As 2011, the Year of the Rabbit, explodes into being I pause, smile and bask in the blessing of following my dreams and supporting others who are doing the same.

Who are the dreamcatchers in your life?

©Sezin Koehler, 2011. Image via Blue Mountain

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Tagged as: American Monsters, dreamcatchers, Dreams, hybrid/MONSTER, Nicole Alonso, Oklahoma Ward, Rose Deniz, Sezin Koehler, Stephen King, Tara Agacayak, Wizard of Oz

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  • Anonymous

    I have a friend and mentor who says that the purpose of life isn’t about the pursuit of happiness, but finding fulfillment. No doubt you are on the right track, because the words you write have more value in your life than the money you’d be earning from a full-time job that drowns your soul. How lucky I am to watch you bloom!

    • http://www.Sezin.org/ Sezin

      Thank you, Tara! And also thank you for being one of the Dreamcatchers and Inspiratrixes in my life.

      I am doing my best to enjoy each day of this writer’s life while I have it. Who knows how long it will last. So much to get done while the opportunity is available!

      I have also loved watching you get the recognition you deserve this past year. From the Mastermind sessions to your workshop in Istanbul…You are taking the world by storm, one turquoise poppy at a time. :-)

  • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

    The dreamcatchers in my life are the people with whom I am able to share my pursuits with, and they share theirs with me, in a supportive way.

    To me, Sezin, you have always been a Technicolor woman….

    • http://www.Sezin.org/ Sezin

      Thank you, Anastasia! You are one of the dreamcatchers in my life as well and I can’t wait until your various amazing projects go public. xoxo

  • Rose Deniz

    Sezin, thank you for sharing your thoughts on motivation and the writer’s life… you are to me one of my dreamcatchers. It’s so wonderful to hear your voice here at Love, Rose!

    • http://www.Sezin.org/ Sezin

      Thank you so much for giving me this space! Your new site is so beautiful, I’m honoured to be a part of Rose’s world. xoxo

  • http://www.bazaarbayar.blogspot.com Catherine Bayar

    You are, Sezin!! As are all my Hybrid Sisters. I love your description of moving from Dorothy’s black and white world into the technicolor of living your dream. Following that dream IS reality; not doing so is a nightmare. Why don’t more people realize this? “Each word I write becomes its own reward”…and you are rewarding us as well, because we get to read them.

    • http://www.bazaarbayar.blogspot.com Catherine Bayar

      Just heard an interview with Salman Rushdie, in which he happens to mention that Oz for him signifies “the land of the imagination, the world that we as writers call our workplace”. He wondered why anyone would want to stay in “Kansas” after visiting Oz; in fact mentions that in one of the later Oz books, Dorothy actually moved her aunt and uncle there (something I’d totally forgotten!) He’d even written a book about it, which I have not read: http://www.rambles.net/rushdie_oz.html

      Interesting how Hollywood ingrained “there’s no place like home” into American culture by ending the film that way, since Dorothy does go back to Oz. Better to be conventional and stay in our own back yard than to follow our dreams?

      • Rose Deniz

        Often accused of having my head in the clouds as a child, I didn’t realize that was a criticism until much later. My dreamland is so very real that I couldn’t imagine why I’d want to abandon it for someone else’s “Kansas”. I’m grateful for my Oz and treat it like something precious – if I don’t protect it, no one else will.

      • http://www.expatharem.com/identity-messages/ Anastasia

        Interesting to hear about Rushdie’s Wizard of Oz book. Why the wizard of oz movie lands us back at home — to avoid the controversy of encouraging people to follow their dreams. To make it “make-believe” (just like the Wizard’s omnipotence itself).

        That’s what I like most about the dreamcatchers in my life — they don’t pull back or get scared of going somewhere new and fantastic. That’s why I can go there with them, about their work, about my own. Because they don’t ask me to rein it in and ‘get real’.

      • http://www.Sezin.org/ Sezin

        Thank you so much, Catherine! The link to the Rushdie book about Oz is brilliant. That film has been one of my visual inspirations as far back as I can remember and I think pretty much everything I write has its roots in Oz in some form or another. I’m fascinated by your point of Hollywood’s re-imagining of the ending. Actually, I hardly ever watch the end of the film. I’ve always hated when The Wicked Witch of the West dies and so I’ll always stop it before that part. I wonder if the return to her drab old home also rang false; now that you’ve mentioned it I totally relate.

        For me, someone with literally no place like home, I never really understood why someone would want to return to drab old Kansas, but I guess the familiar can be much easier to swallow than the unknown, especially to the average American.

        Did any of you Ozians ever see the 80s sequel “Return To Oz”? In that version Dorothy dreams of Oz and returning all the time, and her aunt and uncle think she’s crazy. They take her to an asylum where a doctor plans to use electric shock therapy to get rid of her “delusions” of Oz. It’s a very dark and amazing film, in many ways much deeper than the original. Again, the message of conforming to adult’s standards and expectations, but without the conventional and uninspiring ending.

        Like Rose, I am also grateful I have found my Oz and that you talented women are denizens in this technicolor world. These are the borders worth defending.

        • http://www.bazaarbayar.blogspot.com Catherine Bayar

          I’m now inspired to go back and reread all the Oz books (as a teenager, I’m sure there was much I missed), and see that sequel you mention, Sezin. Just too much of a coincidence to have read your post, then to randomly hear that interview…

          Leaving this drab old home very soon, to return to my technicolor life. The lessons I have learned this winter, and from all of you! XO

          • http://www.Sezin.org/ Sezin

            Do it! What I love about “Return to Oz” is that is actually manifests the intensity and darkness that are present in those so-called children’s stories.

            I don’t believe in coincidences, especially when it’s a matter of Oz and I think maybe part of you wants to remember that wondrous sense of magic and enchantment that comes with that world. I think this is why so many artists and writers and storytellers cite “The Wizard of Oz” as an ongoing inspiration.

            Have a safe journey back into TechnicolorLandia! xoxo

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