Dare to Dream with Eyes Wide Open draws on your faith and hard-won experience to show how hope becomes a daily practice of belief, forgiveness, gratitude, and purposeful action. What inspired you to write this book?

This book grew out of my own journey of learning who I am, recognizing my worth, and finding the courage to believe that life still held possibilities for me. I know what it feels like to carry painful words, to question yourself, and to wonder whether the dreams in your heart could ever become real.

As a little girl in Brazil, I dreamed of speaking English and coming to the United States. There was very little in my circumstances that suggested that would happen. But I kept that dream alive, and when an opportunity came, I took it. Years later, I found myself writing this book in English from my home in Texas. That means something very personal to me.

I wanted to share the lessons that helped me along the way: faith, forgiveness, love, gratitude, and the willingness to act. My hope was that someone reading these pages would begin to see themselves with more compassion and recognize that they still have something beautiful to give. You do not have to have everything figured out to begin.

Where do you see biblical faith and the Law of Attraction supporting each other, and where do you hold them in tension?

My faith in God is deeply personal, and it runs through the way I understand belief, possibility, and our responsibility for how we live. When I read the biblical teachings about asking, believing, loving, and being grateful, I see connections with what draws me to the Law of Attraction: paying attention to what we nurture in our hearts and allowing our beliefs to influence our actions.

For me, gratitude helps me recognize what I have received. Belief gives me courage to pursue something I cannot yet see. Love changes how I treat myself and others. Those are places where I see these ideas supporting one another.

The tension comes when belief meets something we cannot explain or control. I have experienced loss, and I know that loving deeply and believing sincerely do not spare us from suffering. I have to leave room for that mystery. I can pray, visualize, prepare, and act while still acknowledging that I do not understand everything. Faith also means trusting God through the questions, including the ones for which I have no answer.

What helped you move from understanding your parents’ limitations to forgiving them, and how did forgiving yourself differ from that process?​

With my father, something changed when I began looking at the life he had lived. I remembered the humiliation, rejection, and disrespect he had experienced. Understanding that helped me see how much pain he carried into our home. His words had hurt me deeply, but gradually I became able to see the hurting person behind them. Compassion grew from that understanding.

Forgiving my mother brought a different realization. She had always been my heroine. Somewhere inside, I expected her to have the strength to protect us from everything. I had to recognize that she was human, with her own fears, wounds, and limitations. I could love her more fully when I stopped expecting her to have been more than human.

Forgiving myself required turning that same compassion inward. After my mother died, I struggled with guilt about what I thought I should have done differently. Asking for help allowed me to look honestly at everything I had been carrying while caring for her.

I began to understand that I was judging my past self with knowledge and perspective I gained afterward. I needed to see the woman who was exhausted, overwhelmed, and still giving everything she could. Learning to love that woman was a very important part of my healing.

How can readers practice visualization and positive speech while making room for grief, uncertainty, and circumstances beyond their control?​

I would encourage readers to begin with honesty. If you are hurting, acknowledge it. If you need to cry, allow yourself to cry. You can bring your grief into prayer. You can ask for help. Having a difficult day does not mean you have failed at faith or gratitude.

Visualization can help you imagine a possibility and identify a step toward it. Picture yourself having the conversation, returning to something meaningful, or accepting support. Then ask, “What can I do today to move toward that?”

The words you speak to yourself should offer encouragement you can believe. Sometimes that sounds like, “This is painful, and I deserve care.” Sometimes it is, “I do not know how everything will work out, but I can take one step today.”

There is room for gratitude and sadness in the same heart. There is room to miss someone deeply and still welcome something good. Dreaming with your eyes wide open means staying present to your life while giving yourself permission to hope.

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