That my daughter becomes more healthy and returns to Rhode Island and we spend more time together as well as with my Grandson who I haven’t been able to see due to her addiction illness.
My dream is toast of a healthy, verdant and peaceful Earth, where we humans love and nurture all creation and deeply realize our connections. The fate of the Earth is our fate.
And a world in which greed and warmongering cease. Where weapons are literally “beaten into plowshares.”
The dream of what can be imagined, expressed in John Lennon´s hymn of peaceful togetherness lived in Love and gratefulness lives on in me. While actually feeling quite exhausted, this will never die, as well as my deep gratefulness for your being here with me and all your precious contributions, for my dear friends and loved ones, all on our way to realize it. Thank you dearly, friends. May the rainbow shine brightly in all of our hearts.
I am coming up on five years since my son died of cancer at age 26. It was a gastrointestinal cancer and it stole his dreams. And ours. I have been thinking a lot about death and afterlife as someone who is age 66. And I had to face that, in fact, after we die there might not be anything OR anything that we can imagine. And I may not get to touch the spirt of my son again. This idea literally sustained me for many years–that in some way, I would touch and sense his energy fully again at some future point after my own death.
And so…this is like a bell that cannot be unrung for me. This is one of the possibilities. That the brief fleeting time we knew him in this life might all there is.
But this question gave me permission to hold this as a wish, a dream.
And I can hold lightly what it might mean to be be reunited with his energy. I mean if death is the point when we all rejoin the great, teeming mass of energy that is this universe, there will be a rejoining, a reunion. And maybe in that realm his wry smile and mass of long curly hair may only be a tangential memory that is not so important. But this is the dream: To join into that dance and to be one with his energy again.
What a great question!! My dream became a reality. I always wanted to live in the country in a nice house with land where my dog could run and my cats free to run around- all safe. Twenty years ago I met a man who would become my husband- he lived (lives) in W.V. He is a forester and had harvested all the trees for his home. Our house is simple but lovely surrounded by woods and a small creek. I hear the birds singing, and see the deer running and grazing. My dog, Clancy can lie in the sun on the deck as much as he wants and then get up and take a walk to the creek for a drink. The cats (2) run and play and chase chipmunks! I am living my dream. How thankful I am.
However; at times, I get sad…I miss family and friends in NY and Massachusetts. My husband’s family are all in Ct. We don’t see them often…and my family hardly ever. Recently, I have thought we should begin to think about moving closer to family as we are getting older…but this question makes me realize just how Blessed I am….My dream came true…and I think we will live out our days here in the hollow. I contiue to keep you all in my prayers. Never stop dreaming!! 🙂
My father’s dream of higher education. He wasn’t able to go to college. He served in WWII as a bomber pilot, married Mom, they started a family, he had to work when the war was over, rose to an executive position but ultimately felt lack of a college degree held him back relative to others. Among my 6 siblings all of us went to college; I and one other have a master’s degree.
My mother’s dream of a happy marriage. She felt very fulfilled in her marriage and wanted each of her children to find love and happiness. Some of us–me included–had to try more than once at this endeavor. I found the love of my life eventually and am so glad and grateful that I did.
Dreaming gets me into trouble. It’s
the wishing and striving. I’m trying as
hard as I can to be content in this
moment. But of course I do have
dreams. I dream of not having to work
so much and a place to live with a little
space that allowed me to pursue my
interests and hobbies and be able to
provide a place for friends in need.
I would fill my days with art, music,
meditation, outdoor physical activities,
study, gardening, and connecting.
As it is, I have a small amount of all of this
in my life. Finding the balance and not
letting this desire and dreaming bring
me to a place of feeling sorry for myself
and non contentment is the challenge.
So I catch myself drifting into this
dreamscape and I try to come back to
this present moment with gratitude.
Ah, balance. I believe we have to keep the idea in front of us, as you do here, and to try to create balance for all the assorted aspects of ourselves. Lovely.
Hello Charlie! Keep that dream in your heart….and someday it will be your reality. You always add to this gathering with wise words. We are grateful for you!
Dreams… I’m so grateful for dreams. In multiple aspects, dreams are what keep me appreciating this current moment and continuing to strive for a positive peace of mind. Life is one big dream with a million dreams inside it that we live simultaneously. The book “The Four Agreements” by Don Ruiz Miguel comes to mind. Learning to live in the current dream is the challenge, but also never losing sight of the other dreams.
I’m also grateful for my subconscious dreams. Weather good or bad, they keep my conscious dreams in check. Also in my experience, have been an avenue for my God to communicate with me and show me things I’d never thought possible and as a result; changed the outcome of my life.
I will share one specific dream that I am beyond grateful for. It was the night before my first rehab experience. I completely had myself talked out of going. That night, my dream changed everything.
I was standing outside the gates of Heaven. I wasn’t alone. There were other people standing around waiting. We were there for visiting hours. The gates opened and all kinds of people came out. Older and young children. They all greeted their loved ones. I was anxious and standing on my tiptoes trying to see who was coming to see me. Then, Jesus came walking out. He was holding Khaleesi’s hand. She was holding a teddy bear. As soon as she saw me, she immediately ran and jumped into my arms. She looked to be about 6 years old. She had the prettiest curly black hair and pink dress. She reminded me of myself as a young girl.
I cried and just hugged her. I remember stroking her hair and telling her how beautiful she was. Before she had to go back to Heaven, she looked at me and I’ll never forget what she said. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Mommy, it’s okay. Don’t be scared. You can do this.” Jesus called for everyone, and she drifted away.
I will never forget that moment. It’s been life changing since. Have a great day everyone!
John Lennon’s song “Imagine” comes to mind. That said, I don’t seem to think in terms of a dream these days. I will share a Morning Med from 2019 that contains a blog post that was quite helpful to me.
Morning Meds Aug 7 2019 My Story: Dream or Nightmare:
Good Morning, As I read Villoldo’s blog entry below, I was reminded of my sojourn in Arizona and my association with a group of folks who studied Toltec wisdom. They always put great emphasis on monitoring the stories we tell ourselves. The story I’m telling myself these days is not contributing to my well being. It is discouraging not encouraging. It focuses on “what I can’t not what I can do.”
I struggle with the difference between “giving up” and “giving in.” I struggle with the dilemma of accepting limitations and challenging myself to turn “lemons into lemonade.” I search for the willingness to grieve loss but not be lost, to be love instead of seek to be loved.
We all need to dare to dream, to create a story where we aren’t playing the part of a victim.
Blessings, Carol
ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN STORY?
Posted at 09:00 July 30, 2019 Blog post in Shamanism by Dr. Alberto Villoldo
I remember one of my early trips to the Amazon. I was a young anthropologist investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the rain forest, and I’d decided to use myself as a subject.
I explained to the jungle medicine man that as a child my family fled my country of birth because of a communist revolution. I had seen bloodshed in the streets and been terrified by gunfire in the night. Since then I’d suffered recurring nightmares in which armed men would force their way into my home and take away my loved ones.
At the time I was in my late 20s, yet I’d been unable to enter a lasting relationship for fear that I’d lose the person I loved, just like in my nightmare. During one healing ceremony, the shaman explained to me that like everyone, I can either have what I want or the reasons why I can’t.
“You are too enamored of your story,” the old man said. “Until you dare to dream a different dream, all you will have is the nightmare.” That evening I learned how I could craft a different story for myself, one in which I’d been tempered by adversity and my experiences had taught me to have compassion for others who were suffering. The first step to dream my new dream was to create a new story in which I wasn’t playing the part of the victim.
Although the mind resists it, the fact is that like me, you have a choice between having the life you want or the reasons why you can’t. You can luxuriate in joy and peace, or you can continually be burdened by that big black bag full of all the sorrowful incidents and accidents that happened to you in your childhood or last relationship.
You can endure your wounds, or you can enjoy your glory. You can live the life of a victim, burdened by the traumas of your past, or you can live the life of a hero, but you can’t do both. If you want to feel empowered, you need to make a conscious decision to create a sacred dream and practice courage.
Courageous dreaming happens at a state of perception that the Earthkeepers refer to as the level of hummingbird. The hummingbird is an archetype for the heroic voyager— just like it, you’ll inevitably take some wrong turns. However, each time you return to the recognition that you are dreaming your reality, you will deepen your understanding of the journey and feel more committed to it. You’ll be able to embrace the ever-shifting landscape around you with equanimity and a sense of humor, and you’ll even experience grace.
If you’re like most people, your original plan for the “dream life” went awry somewhere. You may be at a point where you’re beginning to lose faith that you can have a fulfilling and meaningful existence, or you might feel powerless to create the destiny you want. “Dreaming” may seem frustrating and futile.
When we become caught up in the activities of everyday survival, as well as trying to fashion a life that our mind tells us ought to make us happy, we can become confused. The relationship sours, the carefree lifestyle vanishes, and the bills pile up—or we look around at all the symbols of success that we’ve acquired and wonder why they don’t make us happy. Our formula for bliss turns out to be a recipe for banality at best and suffering at worst, and our dream becomes a nightmare.
Much as we like to think of ourselves as leading bold and original lives, we tend to lose our zest for adventure at an early age as we begin conforming to our culture’s expectations of how we ought to think, feel, and act. We’ve been educated into a cultural nightmare that promotes apathy instead of courage and conformity instead of originality. We don’t feel a sense of fulfillment or purpose, but we dare not admit that our lives aren’t working for us. It can be so scary to even think about paying the consequences for going up against the status quo that we just stay right where we are, afraid to rock the boat.
Lack of originality and courage are the hallmarks of our collective nightmare. Since all of us have a fundamental need for the sense of security that familiarity provides, we long to fit in and take comfort in believing that tomorrow will be just like today. Change causes us to face the unknown and reside in the realm of unfamiliarity, so we avoid it. Admitting that what we’re doing isn’t producing the results we’d like takes courage.
You can stop engaging in futile efforts and feeling stuck in a nightmare, but to do so, you must make a radical shift in how you perceive reality. No self-help course will help you with this and understanding what you ought to do isn’t enough. You must reclaim your power to dream boldly and courageously, conscious of your journey through infinity. Only then can you easily and naturally let go of the fear that keeps you bogged down in your personal nightmare.
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That my daughter becomes more healthy and returns to Rhode Island and we spend more time together as well as with my Grandson who I haven’t been able to see due to her addiction illness.
My dream is toast of a healthy, verdant and peaceful Earth, where we humans love and nurture all creation and deeply realize our connections. The fate of the Earth is our fate.
And a world in which greed and warmongering cease. Where weapons are literally “beaten into plowshares.”
The dream of what can be imagined, expressed in John Lennon´s hymn of peaceful togetherness lived in Love and gratefulness lives on in me. While actually feeling quite exhausted, this will never die, as well as my deep gratefulness for your being here with me and all your precious contributions, for my dear friends and loved ones, all on our way to realize it. Thank you dearly, friends. May the rainbow shine brightly in all of our hearts.
I am coming up on five years since my son died of cancer at age 26. It was a gastrointestinal cancer and it stole his dreams. And ours. I have been thinking a lot about death and afterlife as someone who is age 66. And I had to face that, in fact, after we die there might not be anything OR anything that we can imagine. And I may not get to touch the spirt of my son again. This idea literally sustained me for many years–that in some way, I would touch and sense his energy fully again at some future point after my own death.
And so…this is like a bell that cannot be unrung for me. This is one of the possibilities. That the brief fleeting time we knew him in this life might all there is.
But this question gave me permission to hold this as a wish, a dream.
And I can hold lightly what it might mean to be be reunited with his energy. I mean if death is the point when we all rejoin the great, teeming mass of energy that is this universe, there will be a rejoining, a reunion. And maybe in that realm his wry smile and mass of long curly hair may only be a tangential memory that is not so important. But this is the dream: To join into that dance and to be one with his energy again.
And may your dream will be fulfilled.
To be free.
Peace.
A sojourn to Alaska.
What a great question!! My dream became a reality. I always wanted to live in the country in a nice house with land where my dog could run and my cats free to run around- all safe. Twenty years ago I met a man who would become my husband- he lived (lives) in W.V. He is a forester and had harvested all the trees for his home. Our house is simple but lovely surrounded by woods and a small creek. I hear the birds singing, and see the deer running and grazing. My dog, Clancy can lie in the sun on the deck as much as he wants and then get up and take a walk to the creek for a drink. The cats (2) run and play and chase chipmunks! I am living my dream. How thankful I am.
However; at times, I get sad…I miss family and friends in NY and Massachusetts. My husband’s family are all in Ct. We don’t see them often…and my family hardly ever. Recently, I have thought we should begin to think about moving closer to family as we are getting older…but this question makes me realize just how Blessed I am….My dream came true…and I think we will live out our days here in the hollow. I contiue to keep you all in my prayers. Never stop dreaming!! 🙂
My father’s dream of higher education. He wasn’t able to go to college. He served in WWII as a bomber pilot, married Mom, they started a family, he had to work when the war was over, rose to an executive position but ultimately felt lack of a college degree held him back relative to others. Among my 6 siblings all of us went to college; I and one other have a master’s degree.
My mother’s dream of a happy marriage. She felt very fulfilled in her marriage and wanted each of her children to find love and happiness. Some of us–me included–had to try more than once at this endeavor. I found the love of my life eventually and am so glad and grateful that I did.
Dreaming gets me into trouble. It’s
the wishing and striving. I’m trying as
hard as I can to be content in this
moment. But of course I do have
dreams. I dream of not having to work
so much and a place to live with a little
space that allowed me to pursue my
interests and hobbies and be able to
provide a place for friends in need.
I would fill my days with art, music,
meditation, outdoor physical activities,
study, gardening, and connecting.
As it is, I have a small amount of all of this
in my life. Finding the balance and not
letting this desire and dreaming bring
me to a place of feeling sorry for myself
and non contentment is the challenge.
So I catch myself drifting into this
dreamscape and I try to come back to
this present moment with gratitude.
thank you – much truth in your reflection.
Good wisdom there Charlie T. Thank you for that reflection.
Ah, balance. I believe we have to keep the idea in front of us, as you do here, and to try to create balance for all the assorted aspects of ourselves. Lovely.
Hello Charlie! Keep that dream in your heart….and someday it will be your reality. You always add to this gathering with wise words. We are grateful for you!
Good morning Charlie, May the universe hears the desires of your heart. May this dreams come true.
Dreams… I’m so grateful for dreams. In multiple aspects, dreams are what keep me appreciating this current moment and continuing to strive for a positive peace of mind. Life is one big dream with a million dreams inside it that we live simultaneously. The book “The Four Agreements” by Don Ruiz Miguel comes to mind. Learning to live in the current dream is the challenge, but also never losing sight of the other dreams.
I’m also grateful for my subconscious dreams. Weather good or bad, they keep my conscious dreams in check. Also in my experience, have been an avenue for my God to communicate with me and show me things I’d never thought possible and as a result; changed the outcome of my life.
I will share one specific dream that I am beyond grateful for. It was the night before my first rehab experience. I completely had myself talked out of going. That night, my dream changed everything.
I was standing outside the gates of Heaven. I wasn’t alone. There were other people standing around waiting. We were there for visiting hours. The gates opened and all kinds of people came out. Older and young children. They all greeted their loved ones. I was anxious and standing on my tiptoes trying to see who was coming to see me. Then, Jesus came walking out. He was holding Khaleesi’s hand. She was holding a teddy bear. As soon as she saw me, she immediately ran and jumped into my arms. She looked to be about 6 years old. She had the prettiest curly black hair and pink dress. She reminded me of myself as a young girl.
I cried and just hugged her. I remember stroking her hair and telling her how beautiful she was. Before she had to go back to Heaven, she looked at me and I’ll never forget what she said. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Mommy, it’s okay. Don’t be scared. You can do this.” Jesus called for everyone, and she drifted away.
I will never forget that moment. It’s been life changing since. Have a great day everyone!
Faran, Thanks so much for sharing.
Wow!! Life changing indeed. May you find peace in this dream knowing your loved ones are with you today and always. How powerful.
John Lennon’s song “Imagine” comes to mind. That said, I don’t seem to think in terms of a dream these days. I will share a Morning Med from 2019 that contains a blog post that was quite helpful to me.
Morning Meds Aug 7 2019 My Story: Dream or Nightmare:
Good Morning, As I read Villoldo’s blog entry below, I was reminded of my sojourn in Arizona and my association with a group of folks who studied Toltec wisdom. They always put great emphasis on monitoring the stories we tell ourselves. The story I’m telling myself these days is not contributing to my well being. It is discouraging not encouraging. It focuses on “what I can’t not what I can do.”
I struggle with the difference between “giving up” and “giving in.” I struggle with the dilemma of accepting limitations and challenging myself to turn “lemons into lemonade.” I search for the willingness to grieve loss but not be lost, to be love instead of seek to be loved.
We all need to dare to dream, to create a story where we aren’t playing the part of a victim.
Blessings, Carol
ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN STORY?
Posted at 09:00 July 30, 2019 Blog post in Shamanism by Dr. Alberto Villoldo
I remember one of my early trips to the Amazon. I was a young anthropologist investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the rain forest, and I’d decided to use myself as a subject.
I explained to the jungle medicine man that as a child my family fled my country of birth because of a communist revolution. I had seen bloodshed in the streets and been terrified by gunfire in the night. Since then I’d suffered recurring nightmares in which armed men would force their way into my home and take away my loved ones.
At the time I was in my late 20s, yet I’d been unable to enter a lasting relationship for fear that I’d lose the person I loved, just like in my nightmare. During one healing ceremony, the shaman explained to me that like everyone, I can either have what I want or the reasons why I can’t.
“You are too enamored of your story,” the old man said. “Until you dare to dream a different dream, all you will have is the nightmare.” That evening I learned how I could craft a different story for myself, one in which I’d been tempered by adversity and my experiences had taught me to have compassion for others who were suffering. The first step to dream my new dream was to create a new story in which I wasn’t playing the part of the victim.
Although the mind resists it, the fact is that like me, you have a choice between having the life you want or the reasons why you can’t. You can luxuriate in joy and peace, or you can continually be burdened by that big black bag full of all the sorrowful incidents and accidents that happened to you in your childhood or last relationship.
You can endure your wounds, or you can enjoy your glory. You can live the life of a victim, burdened by the traumas of your past, or you can live the life of a hero, but you can’t do both. If you want to feel empowered, you need to make a conscious decision to create a sacred dream and practice courage.
Courageous dreaming happens at a state of perception that the Earthkeepers refer to as the level of hummingbird. The hummingbird is an archetype for the heroic voyager— just like it, you’ll inevitably take some wrong turns. However, each time you return to the recognition that you are dreaming your reality, you will deepen your understanding of the journey and feel more committed to it. You’ll be able to embrace the ever-shifting landscape around you with equanimity and a sense of humor, and you’ll even experience grace.
If you’re like most people, your original plan for the “dream life” went awry somewhere. You may be at a point where you’re beginning to lose faith that you can have a fulfilling and meaningful existence, or you might feel powerless to create the destiny you want. “Dreaming” may seem frustrating and futile.
When we become caught up in the activities of everyday survival, as well as trying to fashion a life that our mind tells us ought to make us happy, we can become confused. The relationship sours, the carefree lifestyle vanishes, and the bills pile up—or we look around at all the symbols of success that we’ve acquired and wonder why they don’t make us happy. Our formula for bliss turns out to be a recipe for banality at best and suffering at worst, and our dream becomes a nightmare.
Much as we like to think of ourselves as leading bold and original lives, we tend to lose our zest for adventure at an early age as we begin conforming to our culture’s expectations of how we ought to think, feel, and act. We’ve been educated into a cultural nightmare that promotes apathy instead of courage and conformity instead of originality. We don’t feel a sense of fulfillment or purpose, but we dare not admit that our lives aren’t working for us. It can be so scary to even think about paying the consequences for going up against the status quo that we just stay right where we are, afraid to rock the boat.
Lack of originality and courage are the hallmarks of our collective nightmare. Since all of us have a fundamental need for the sense of security that familiarity provides, we long to fit in and take comfort in believing that tomorrow will be just like today. Change causes us to face the unknown and reside in the realm of unfamiliarity, so we avoid it. Admitting that what we’re doing isn’t producing the results we’d like takes courage.
You can stop engaging in futile efforts and feeling stuck in a nightmare, but to do so, you must make a radical shift in how you perceive reality. No self-help course will help you with this and understanding what you ought to do isn’t enough. You must reclaim your power to dream boldly and courageously, conscious of your journey through infinity. Only then can you easily and naturally let go of the fear that keeps you bogged down in your personal nightmare.
« I can have what I want or the reasons why I can’t. » Succinct and powerful, thank you.
Thank you for this, Carol.
As usual, our thoughts are in
synchronicity. 🙏
Peace and happiness ✌🏼😊
To never forget being grateful and loving
To grab life with both hands and hang on.
Even though I know that everything in our world is impermanent that the aging process continues at a slow crawl.
The dream of finding true happiness and fulfillment lives on in me.