Complete in Thee: O.A.I. Syndrome

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

O.A.I. Syndrome

O.A.I. Syndrome:
Over Active Imagination Syndrome

Definition: a disposition in which one daydreams and concentrates on their thoughts so much that they transport her into a different world, and she becomes prone to nervousness, emotion, and culture shock when brought back

Okay, so maybe that was overworded, but so it seems. I am a severe culprit; it takes its toll on me daily. Just curious as to how many of my friends here suffer from the same syndrom. Allow me to share a few examples of my own O.A.I.

One of the best examples is found in this post.

Another happened just the other month. We were driving to a fire station some 45-50 minutes away for a charity dinner, and to pass the time, I was looking at Reminisce magazines. The tales of days gone wrapped their cords around me and held me back in the world of Victory gardens, bobbed and curled hair, wearing hats and gloves to church, and driving in antique models of cars. Then we arrived at the fire station, and as I walked in, I had this wave of culture shock, like I had stepped forward 60 years into the future! People bustled around me in jeans, fire station T-shirts, and cellphones. I felt ever so out-of-place. Some little Boy Scouts were serving the food, and I felt like they were a little more in place with my world, in their brown Boy Scout outfits and their freckled faces.
Very strange.

Another example is the time I was planning for a story about two brothers at the beginning of World War II in Europe-- one was actually adopted, and a Jew, and the other was very politically active in trying to hinder the Nazi movement. I had planned that in the end one of the brothers died, and I thought so much about it that I got depressed.

:-P

So tell me whether you have O.A.I. Syndrome! I'd love to know I'm not the only strange one out there. Any crazy stories like mine? :-P

P.S. I like to tell kids that my superpower is time travel. ;-)

6 comments:

Lilly said...: Not so much any more. However, mom used to say I dramatized my life as if I was a character out of a book.; October 14, 2009 at 5:13 PM
Gaby said...: :P I do it all the time! I think I might suffer from it! LOL! Why, just today I went out shopping with my mother and Ashley. I have not been out since Sunday, and I had only been to church. I was, perhaps, a little lost in the world of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Anne of Green Gables. Anyhow, I was wearing an "Anne" skirt. Once at the Target (the place we were shopping at) I received a culture shock! I as actually shocked at what people were wearing! LOL As if I expected everyone to wear what I was wearing! :P It was not the only time it has happened to me either...

Gabrielle

P.S.
My dad thinks us meeting up will work out. He just needs to know when you will be here and where we would meet at. I hope it works out!; October 14, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Amanda said...: LOL!!!!!! I'm glad to finally know that there is a name for it! : ) Now I know what to tell my family when I say something weird in the middle of a conversation and they look at me and ask if I'm okay. : )

In the story I am now writing I like to give one of my characters a thick German accent. In order to write it right I talk in German and try to get the accent just perfect. When I leave my writing I tend to forget and continue using my accent. My family thinks that I have gone crazy! : )

Ah vell, Gute night.; October 14, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Amanda said...: I'm afraid I usually do NOT suffer from O.A.I. - however, very occasionally, I suddenly realize that I am miles away and somebody is trying to talk to me...; October 15, 2009 at 4:21 PM
Margaret Dashwood said...: Haha, I get that!!!! The only thing is, I never apply my daydreams to a book...:P

Ooh, I'm listening to Alasdair Fraser and I'm loving listening to that beautiful Celtic/Scottish fiddle....watch out, I might get O.A.I. if I'm not careful!!!:P :P :P Maybe I should read Fisherman's Lady....:D

Bethany; October 15, 2009 at 8:13 PM
Teddy said...: I'd say I suffer from it...I've gotten depressed over the idea of killing off a character too... :)And just ask my dog- my imagination works full time on our walks... :-S It's sort of embarrassing and a little bit annoying. Every person I pass has got a story behind them....there's a bad guy behind every fire-hydrant...every interesting house has got some marvelous history.................and I can't believe I'm admitting all of this.... :); October 16, 2009 at 8:02 AM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."