Category: dreams

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Nothing For Granted

I’ve been thinking about how often I seem to take things for granted. Maybe this happens to you too.

I began wondering why. Could it be that my mind is just too busy with other things or is there something deeper going on?

There was a somewhat melancholy feeling running through me and words started flowing onto a page in my journal. I thought I’d share them with you, so that maybe together we could remind ourselves to take nothing for granted.

Nothing For Granted

Life is precious,

Sometimes staying in one place,

Sometimes leaping head.

I want to remember it all.

I wonder to myself about things,

About moments I experience,

What if this were my last hug,

The last spoke word I’ll ever hear,

What if this were my last sunset,

Last long soothing shower I’ll ever have,

Last delicious meal I’ll eat,

Or song I’ll hear,

Or walk I’ll take,

What if it’s the last firefly I’ll see light up

On a hot summer night,

Last starlit sky,

Last new spring green explosion of leaves I’ll see,

Or the last brilliant colorful autumn extravaganza,

What if it’s the last time I’ll feel the warmth of a cozy blanket,

Or the sunshine on my face,

What if this was the last time I’ll feel my wife’s lips against mine,

Would it change what it means to me

To be alive,

Would I treasure it,

Savor it,

Breath into it.

Would I try to hold onto it for dear life.

I wonder,

What do I want my life to be like.

So,

I sit with all of this

And let it wash over me

And I know what I want,

I want everything

To mean something to me,

Every sting,

Every fall and rise,

Every illusive dream,

Hurt, hope, every breath,

Every face and heart connection,

I want the whole collection of life,

Because it all matters.

And what I want most

Is to feel alive

And connected

And

I want to take nothing for granted,

Ever

I am curious what things you’d put on your list. Maybe you are too.

Be well.

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What If Today…

I want to share something that I wrote for a dear friend of mine recently. It was intended to provide a spark to ignite a different way of viewing life. It was something that I needed. As with all of my posts, the thoughts and words arrive for me and then moved outward into the world.

The post is a dream in a way. Of a richer life. And of course, as it is in all cases, it depends on what we choose. I wonder to myself what will I choose, I wonder too, what will you choose?

What if today…

What if today…I choose to believe…to truly accept and embrace…that every single thing that happens to me is here to benefit me. What if I choose to see beyond appearances and all of the things that blind me. What if I give myself permission to believe that I am loved and cared for and know that everything I experience in my life is there to offer me something of value. That no matter what the world tells me, I can choose my own path. What if I embrace that my heart and spirit are the ones that set me free.

What if today I release any need to control the uncontrollable. What if I spruce up my ability to yield and let go of all the things that weigh me down…to set them aside and feel the precious liberation and the expansive freedom that choice creates.

What if today I collect all the most lovable parts of me and hug them and ask them to spread their joy throughout my body…my life.

What if today I allow every sorrow, pain, challenge, and concern to take the day off…to rest…what if I placed them all gently in the ocean of bliss that is my true home, where they can be washed clean.

What if, for one day, I give up needing to be in charge of anything and allow life to flow gently through me.

What if today…I breathe in peace and breathe out love.

What if today…is that day.

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Heart Wide Open

What are your biggest dreams? The ones you would love to experience most in your life. Maybe you already have a list, one that you think about often.

If you stopped for a moment or two, what’s at the top of your list? It could be a to have a truly meaningful relationship with a spouse, parent, child, friend, or favorite animal. Perhaps it would be the perfect job, house, car, or vacation.

You might live in a place where there is war, oppression, violence, disease, or other traumatic events, in which case maybe your biggest, wildest dream is peace, health, harmony, caring or prosperity.

You might live with certain oppressions surrounding you and dream of a time where everyone lives in a safe, prosperous place where there is equity and opportunity.

There are so many situations we all face and sometimes we get an uneven mixture of the good and bad stuff, which can make it more difficult to remain calm and optimistic about our life.

One of my biggest dreams is to live with my heart wide open.

The world can seem like an incredibly difficult place to live and the idea of opening our hearts wide to it may feel frighteningly unsafe, especially if we’ve been hurt often, by others or through our own actions.

It’s easily understood why we might tend to cover our hearts or put-up barriers to protect ourselves. I have certainly done this on many occasions. The problem is that every time I do this, it shuts another part of me off from the rest of creation. It limits me and shrinks me. It draws me inward and disconnects me from the beautiful, majestic, magical world where we all live.

I have trained myself to step back whenever I sense a problem confronting me and to give it some distance. That’s what I’m doing right now. I’m giving myself a chance to capture an image that will help guide me to a better way to live.

And one appears, both surprising and delighting me. The vision is of a dreamcatcher, which is a hoop with a web stretching across it, creating connections and empty spaces. For many, the belief is that during the night’s sleep, the web let’s all of the good dreams through, but catches and traps all of the bad dreams, allowing the sleeper to have a wonderful, protected, restful sleep.

A dear friend of mine made one for me and it hangs over my bed, offering me peace and tranquility.

But what does this have to do with living with a heart wide open?

Actually, a lot.

What if I could apply the dreamcatcher idea here? What if I could live, aware of the world, but letting all of the bad stuff stop on the outside of me and only allowing the good stuff in?

A thought springs to mind. According to scientists, we are made up of millions of atoms. When an atom is examined, they find that it is composed of mostly space. In fact, there is a general agreement that the human body is roughly 99.999% empty space. That’s hard to believe. To think that a person we see with our eyes is actually mostly empty space.

What if the same is true of our hearts? What if we could shift our perception of the world and let what we consider to be the ‘bad stuff’ through the empty spaces inside our hearts so that we could focus on the ‘good stuff’? Could we give ourselves this precious permission?

I want to try. I want this because I sense the value and benefit it would offer me.

With my heart wide open, I would be able to hold on to the magnificence and the illuminating divine nature of life. And in that space, I could connect with others in ways I have not yet imagined.

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Things Worth Considering

Random thoughts run through my mind all the time. Does this happen to you too? Do you wish that you could keep them around a little while longer, so you could take advantage of what they might offer you?

Many years ago, I decided that I would buy a few small notebooks and place them in spots where they would be easily accessible to me, that way when a thought popped into my head, I could capture it.

I’ve filled several of the notebooks and recently paused to scan some of them to see what I’d written. What I discovered was fascinating to me and I have the feeling that it might make an interesting book, even if its distribution is limited.

I thought I’d share some of my ideas and observations with you and see what you thought.

So here goes…

** What is the first question I ask myself in the morning when I wake up? Responses included the following: how do I feel physically, what time is it, is it too early to get up, did I get enough sleep, what is happening today, will I be able to get the necessary things done today, how important is it that I do my exercises?

I pretty much know my answers to these questions and although I want to be happy about them, sometimes I find they bend me in a ‘negative’ direction, one I have to dig myself out of. Maybe I need to ask better questions.

** How many good years do we have to travel and where do we want to go…Banff in the Canadian Rockies, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Paris, Hawaii?

There are so many places that interest us. Of course, we could stay close to home and enjoy our own fantastic scenery. But what’s really important about this question is the state of our health and whether we are doing things to promote it and improve it, so the focus shifts in that direction. Travel can take care of itself.

** In one moment of insight an idea came to me that I (anyone) can CLAIM (intentionally choose) to experience anything or move in any direction, because ‘everything already exists’. We do not need to create it or manage it or maintain it. There is already an infinite web of creation, far beyond what we are capable of presently conceiving or understanding. This web stretches infinitely in all directions and everything is a part of it. What we believe are detours in our lives are only alternate paths headed toward the same destination.

** In a moment of clarity, a quote came to me (or is it ‘through me’) that feels true to me…” worrying about unpleasant outcomes in my life makes me an immediate victim.” I wondered, what is the sense of doing that?

** I have long felt and believed that heaven is an ocean of bliss, and that love is its expression on earth. I feel this way because I have memories from heaven, not what it looked like, but how it felt. And it feels wonderful, and it belongs to each of us. We all came from there and return to there. What a beautiful awareness.

** I sat wondering why I am here, on this earth, at this time. It seems to me that I wanted to experience ‘separation’ and an incredibly strong sense of abandonment. Separation from my home in heaven and a feeling that I was abandoned here, left to fend for myself. And yet, shadows have shifted, leaving me in the light and I realize those intense feelings gave me direction and ‘forced’ me to open up. And once I did, I began to remember, to awaken to the truth that we are all divine beings, seeking a depth of connection (like the one we experienced in heaven). And now that I see more clearly, I want to share, to speak my truth and encourage others to do the same.

There are so many more musing. What strikes me is that everyone probably has passing thoughts that are important to them, they only need to offer themselves the chance to capture them and sit with them. If they do, I believe wonderful treasures await them.