The Flowers Respond

I had a dream about lucid dreaming. I googled the term, then “Wikipediaed” (these new relations make me think of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel Clockwork Orange – layered of course with graphically memorable images of Malcolm McDowell and more), and scanned the information, history, ideas, scientifically-accepted thoughts, etc. This brought Clockwork Orange to mind again…and not in a good way. I hadn’t thought about this book in many years and now, twice, a reminder: this dream within a dream, and my cousin’s book report which I read.  In my dream were many layers of dream and reality, in which I was being shown the reality of the dream, and the reality of what is, as shown by all waking moments. Sound obtuse? Not if you had been in my dream! As I reflect upon Sir Ken Robinson’s TED address (see earlier link) and his inspiring message about creative teaching and learning, I think of lucid dreaming and my dream this morning. We’re so programmed to ridicule, to deny, keeping silent about our infinite thoughts and dreams rather than being taught to explore them as the energy they are, part of us as energy, which makes them infinitely more interesting. We’re used to pontificating rather than communicating (sharing), controlling rather than listening. In my mind, during my dream and upon waking, I felt myself expanding, with the optimism and hope of listening more carefully, more compassionately, more usefully. I felt the shift of energy as I awoke, the way the physical energy focus felt – like placing my feet solidly on the ground, feeling the earth “move under my feet.” I turned on the TV to watch Holmes on Homes, and heard him say, I didn’t build this house, but I’m fixing this house!, as he proceeded with his teams to take care of each layer of problem they found to fix a solid structure without the risks that preceded him.  I listened to the water run as I filled the sink. I listened to the birds as I opened the door from the sunroom. The heat of the sun increased, and I watched the flowers respond.  Then I sent an email about Kathy Oddenino’s upcoming Joy of Health class, in which she wrote about Why do we expect to be sick? We can learn to know we are energy, even if we haven’t been taught this from our conscious beginning.

 We listen, we hear, often we judge – we already know that, we don’t want to hear that, we wish we didn’t have to know that, etc. It’s amazing how we have crafted our thinking selves. What inspires us? We have poured ourselves (and therefore our money) into building the systems we live with and struggle to support. The ones that sail on (fewer and fewer) we seldom think about. In yesterday’s NY Times was an article about the Human Genome’s promise and progress to date, 10 years past the mapping. We are complex beings. One conclusion is that in some respects, taking a good family history yields more helpful data. Our continuing stories reveal who we are at every level, if we open our mind to our eternal nature. As the Gulf Oil spill continues to present the current pictures of our challenge, we are invited to learn, to know, to respond, and also to acknowledge, again, that if we turn away and act like “that’s not me,” we are consciously declaring that we prefer to be ignorant and irresponsible; unfeeling. We prefer to live the meek or dragon role in the myths of our childhood, pretending that they are still only fairy tales, not images from our own minds as we reflect the reality we create.  So much for my own pontificating, programming, ignoring! The complexities of us are simply beautiful, once we know who we are.