Sending Forth...

I had a dream yesterday morning - Thanksgiving morning - in which a woman approached me seeking wisdom. Here is what I shared with her. I am happy that I remembered this dream, as it is obviously information that is beneficial to me, and maybe you will find it useful as well. I hope so...

November 25, 2010 Thanksgiving
...I tell her about projecting love forward. That if we project our love out in front of us - forward - that there can be no failure, no disappointment, nothing other than joy or success or satisfaction and connection. No matter what happens, if what we project is love, is our essence, our soul in its divine radiant purity, there is nothing but good that can come from this. There can then be no fear, no scarcity, no lack, no loss. There will always be love, no matter what, because it is what we are putting out in front of ourselves. While I am explaining this, I am seeing a bright white light with indigo edges, projecting forth from my heart, extending several feet in front of me. Sort of like a small lightning burst that is continuous in flow...

Slow down, and take stock...

STOP. STOP THE WORLD FOR A MOMENT, AND TAKE STOCK. ON WHAT ARE YOU PLACING YOUR ATTENTION?

I recently had an idea around attention. I had been thinking on the notion of how powerful our attention is. How our attention is what really enlivens our ideas, our pursuits, the fruits of our labors - and the world in general. I think about what people are paying attention to - on the internet, on television, in movies, in families and friends around us, on politics, on government, on fears, hopes, desires, dreams and on and on.

It occurred to me that it might an interesting exercise for us to stop and take stock of where our attention is placed. Take some time and stop the world, still the mind and then gently ask ourselves where our focus is on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and more importantly, moment to moment basis. One way to start would be to simply make a list of our daily focus of attention, from hour to hour.

Perhaps the moments in between chores, job and home, quiet moments at home or in the car between places are the gems. What are we thinking of when we don’t have to be engaged with an obligation - where are our daydreams taking us? (or are we busy on our blackberries, or compulsively checking our email or facebook as we walk past the computer, just out of habit?)

I am guessing that even just doing this exercise will enhance our conscious presence of mind and awareness of our thoughts in a constructive way. Perhaps we’ll notice the bird singing outside our window, or remember the dream we had last night that got covered over by busy-ness as soon as our feet hit the floor this morning.

I think it’s those thoughts that flit by when we are in between that sometimes have the most to offer. And that it is important to create or allow for these spaces in the between, where we can wake up to our true voice underneath it all. And remind ourselves to come back to center and pay attention. Real attention, with presence.

And in doing this, my guess is that we will notice some areas of focus that we can allow to fall away - that aren't really constructive.

In reading over this post, I am struck by the way we use the term, to "pay attention." Imagine that our attention is actually a currency (current=energy) much like money, but in reality more dear. If we think about our attention as valuable as (really more than) money - how does this affect how we "spend" or "pay" our attention?

What are you paying attention to?

We Are Always Dreaming

A poem by Laurence Holden

WE ARE ALWAYS DREAMING

We are always dreaming,
the good life, the bad life,
the life not lived.

In our ceremonies
we mark our bodies
with the signs of our dreams,
flames and crosses and circles.

Wearing our dream marks
we carry our whole lives
into the country of our days.

We must do this - keep it up,
this dreaming into our waking country,
keep it going, keep it safe,
even into the desert of our selves.

- Laurence Holden, 3/09

New Post from Cyndi Crocket

What keeps me up at night:

I envision a beautiful world, where unconditional love, authenticity, peace, awareness, sharing, caring, creativity, freedom and contribution are pillar values. A world where we truly love ourselves and deeply love one another, thereby fulfilling each other’s inherent need for acceptance and survival. A global society which cherishes our earth mother and reverence for all the life that she sustains.

I envision a gold standard of achievement and success based on what we contribute to the beauty of our world, through our gifts, talents and passions. A simpler life, one of value and contribution in being who we are as children of the Universe living in wonder. A world that thrives synchronistically as a result of living in harmony with natural laws and the core essence of our being through our natural creativity. A culture that reveres natural and physical laws, and serves our brothers and sisters as we are all one. A society that encourages and fosters creativity rather than conformity. A world that we create through giving back more than we take.

I envision an abundant garden of Eden right here, right now. Heaven on earth. Join me in this vision, and let’s co-create a beautiful world. It is simple, really. It all begins with me, you and the awareness of choices we make in each moment to fulfill our purpose for being here on this planet at this particular moment in time; an opportunity to heal our world through our acts of love and contribution. It begins with loving ourselves first and then emanating that love outwards to others. Let us create this wave of love right here, right now.

We are always dreaming...

We are in a time of dreaming now - dreaming the now, dreaming the future, dreaming the past anew. What are you dreaming into being now?

Lately I have been noticing how a lot of dreamers are having more and more similar dreams. Common themes or elements are appearing with more frequency, it seems. I have seen a few bicycle dreams, where there is some kind of struggle happening. I'm feeling like these bicycles have something to do with the place/time where two worlds, or two cycles are coming together, and the struggles we are going through with this transition. And there are several that involve some kind of haze or not being able to see clearly the way ahead, but needing to continue on the path anyway.

These are profound messages, in my experience of them - oh, and a friend told me that in her dream (which I was also in), there were words in the sky, saying "IT'S UP TO YOU" and "YOU CAN DO SOMETHING" (and she said it was the collective "you"). To me, this was a direct message to all of us, so relevant now in terms of consciously manifesting the world before us. My friend even said that she thought this dream was really for me.

Anyway - our dreams are so powerful. Our sleeping dreams come from a place of source or collective, often unimpaired by our conscious involvement, and can tell us so much. That said, our waking dreams have even more power, because our consciousness is added to them - the power of our will goes behind all our thoughts, whether we realize it or not. Makes me want to be so much more careful with my thoughts and words...


"Lake Dreaming" by Honor Woodard Oil on Birch 2006

Poem by Thomas Rain Crowe

May It Continue

May the brown earth and the green leaves
thrive in color and in grace.
May it continue.

May the clear air and the cumulocirrus clouds
be there in the sky and in each breath, always.
May it continue.

May the water made of sweet minerals and salt
in small streams and large rivers
flow forever and forever flow to the seas.
May it continue.

May the sun shine warm and bright
and the moon give light at night--shining from shook foil.
May it continue.

May the beautiful birds of Hawaii and
the luminous parrots of Peru fly far and fast
and may their number grow.
May it continue.

May the deer and the elk, the antelope and the ibis
move and migrate, leap and lope across plain
and wooded plateau.
May it continue.

May the whale and the dolphin and the manatee
swim deep in dark oceans and lagoons and sing.
May it continue.

May the elephants forever in families roam,
trunk to tail, trumpeting bliss.
May it continue.

May waves of warm frost linger in bush and blaze
that puts fire in the peat of loam. And let lick cry from ripe vine.
May it continue.

May the rose climb through
the cold murmur of morning dirt.
May dark mulch coax tendrils from sleep.
May it continue.

May wild words come flying from green coils and
may each breath rustle through the beard of blue moss
in the sound of song.
May it continue.

-Thomas Rain Crowe

Poetry...

From Laurence Holden, Artist and Poet:

I want to say:

Poetry is the tongue of our nature spirit.
Images are the eyes of our nature spirit.
Heartbeat is the breath of our nature spirit.

Surely sewn we are
out of the wonder of this world.

- Laurence Holden

Bio-mimicry

This TED talk is an inspiration to this notion of evisioning the new earth, I think...
I had one small reservation when watching it again - that something like taking water from the air in a new way might disrupt a balance somewhere. So I think it is very important in all things to keep some attention focused on the balance of the whole and the potential consequences of anything we choose to do in the world. However, this reservation is far outweighed by the notion of putting so much attention on nature and how intelligent and graceful it is. We can learn so much from paying attention.

http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action.html

Words from Gregg Braden and Wendell Berry

This morning I was up way too early and saw this posted on Facebook, attributed to Gregg Braden - It fits in here, and also with something I jotted down from Wendell Berry a few years ago that I will also paste here. It is all related...

"Just the way sound creates visible waves as it travels through a droplet of water, our "belief waves" ripple through the quantum fabric of the universe to become our bodies & the healing, abundance, and peace--or disease, lack, and suffering--that we experience in life. And just the way we can tune a sound to change its patterns, we can tune our beliefs to preserve or destroy all that we cherish, including life itself."
-Gregg Braden

And from Wendell Berry:

"the A string of a violin…is designed to vibrate most readily at about 440 vibrations per second: the note A. If that same note is played loudly not on the violin but near it, the violin A string may hum in sympathy." This may have practical exemplification in the craft of the mud daubers which, as they trowel mud into their nest walls, hum to it, or at it, communicating a vibration that makes it easier to work, thus mastering their material by a kind of song. Perhaps the hum of the mud dauber only activates that anciently perceived likeness between all creatures and the earth of which they are made. Humans, unlike mud daubers, are not naturally involved in harmony. For humans, harmony is always a product, and artifact, and if they do not know how to make it and choose to make it, then they do not have it."

Words...

I was meditating then writing earlier this year, and here are a couple of the writings. They seem to relate to this notion of envisioning our new Earth:
---
We are all
pieces and parts
of the body of God.

When we awaken
to our oneness,
anything is possible.
We are God in motion.
---
i am
the white hole
within the black hole
an infinitude of possibility
unlimited probability
flowing through at all times
through all time
in each moment, i am
i am each moment
full, empty, ripe
open
a vessel at once full and filling
unlimited capacity
unending flow
of truth, light
transcendent energy
forever