Tag Archives: dreams

Bad Weeks and Blessings

Man, it has been a bad week. And a blessed one. After a really big show over the weekend, The Fog descended on Monday and I’ve mostly been in my pink fuzzy robe, pondering the universe. Or my toes. My behavior became like that of an animal in the wild – hiding out, not wanting others to see the weakness, the humanness, the mess. This time, it came to me to reach out for help. Even though Dogbert was on my shoulder. The comic strip character from “Dilbert” that is. This episode features Dogbert giving time-management advice to the Boss:

Helpful, huh? Unfortunately, doing everything on both lists is my usual motto. I came up as the middle layer in a sandwich of successful sisters. Even though I am utterly different, it does not always occur to me that this can be a good thing. They have high-powered careers. I am an artist at heart, and a fledgling entrepreneur. They do both lists.

Feeling better this afternoon, I looked for my friend Lisa Zimmerman’s helpful newsletter. Lisa writes newsletters to me. She just happens to send them out to her entire mailing list. Seven days ago she emailed this. Read it slowly, for the words today helped me and maybe they will comfort you, too, if you need it.

Dear Nancy, (See, I told you she writes for me)

During the coming week Mercury will turn to go Direct. This creates new openings and opportunities for forward movement and new info to be revealed, which is always a beautiful thing 🙂

In the spirit of personal growth and evolution, I’d like to share another teaching I discovered when I was in ministerial training at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary.
This piece was written in 1927 by American writer, Max Ehrmann. It’s called Desiderata, which means “desired things.” It’s as relevant now as it always was. Enjoy.

Desiderata
 
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere, life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrender the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive It to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

*~*~*~*~*

© 2012 Lisa E. Zimmerman. All rights reserved.
To use any or all of this newsletter, please include this exactly:
Lisa Zimmerman is an Intuitive Astrologer & Transformational Consultant who helps people discover who they came here to be, transcend obstacles, and step into their power. Get your Free subscription to her ezine: SoulLevelSolutions.com.

Thank you, Lisa.

This wasn’t  the only blessing I got this week. It’s the one, though, that inspired me to write this post. Blessings also arrived in the form of my partner Wug’s patience and sensitivity. And from Krista Bermeo, in the form of a cupcake with a pink ballerina. And from Paul d’Andrea for the wonderful photography that I needed and Wug asked you to do for me (pics coming soon!)  Thank you all for my blessed week.

Pink Ballerina

Dreams, Creativity, and Becoming a Crone

Dreams. They are what creativity is made of, often. A wonderful creative spark in a dream or day-dream, a vision or a meditation can come to life at the artist’s hand, the architect’s drafting table, inventor’s inventory of ephemera, or metalsmith’s hammer, and build something up from the nothing that was there before. Powerful stuff, dreams.
2008 was a banner year for major dreamage, and the dreams have only escalated since. It’s almost like I woke up on New Year’s Day in 2008 and everything forever after would be different (see photo of Pod sculpture for an example of a dream coming to life). This has made me wonder about the power and meaning of dreams. A few months ago, the dreams started getting written down in a new journal, in between marketing ideas and to-do lists. While the other journal items were pretty straight forward, I didn’t know what to make of the dreams. They seemed to command attention on their own.

Pod Sculpture by Nancy Lee
Pod Sculpture by Nancy Lee

So I sought out some expert advice, and then attended a dreams workshop at Butler University. A bunch of woo-woo stuff? Maybe. But now that I’m the big 5-0 I don’t give a crap what anyone thinks about that. If it helps me resolve or feel better about whatever, or brings me closer to being a crone, then I’m gonna do whatever.
As a result of the dream lecture, I now own “The Dreamer’s Dictionary” and a proper Dream Journal which was on clearance at Office Max for 99 cents and is actually a bound school notebook with a pink cover. Just the thing. Snugged by my beside with my favorite ultra-fine point micro-pen which makes marks that I can actually read in the dim morning light, I set out to write down my dreams upon awakening.
Surely I could rein in the wispy dreams, interpret them, and reach a higher consciousness and level of wisdom which I had never known before. Ahh, the enlightenment! I could feel it approach, rumbling like a freight train bearing down on my location with railroad cars full of exquisite knowledge that would turn me into the crone I longed to be!
The reality, though, is a slog. A smidgen of knowledge, a dram at a time, each object in the dream one step closer to a full dream interpretation. Someday the dream-meanings would come, but for now they are nowhere NEAR where they should be in order to claim the crown of crone-ness.
Occasionally magnificent dreams with consistently neophyte translations. Visions of stuff (climbing a monumental red sculpture with a massive stone base at the edge of a cliff, for example) that I do not even possess enough skill to draw out on the paper in my little pink journal, let alone interpret fully.
In my heart and in my soul, I know this is special. And I feel lucky that these vivid dreams visit and that I recall them in such detail. It’s just that I want better answers faster than I am able to produce them on my own. I want to become a crone. And some rocking illustration skills would help a heap.
Do you, dear reader, have dreams? If you do, do you bother with interpretations? If so, how do you go about interpreting what they mean? Inquiring minds want to know!

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