Dream On…
Now that many of us are in our ‘elder’ years, it’s time to reevaluate our presuppositions and realign with the inner callings that still show up inviting further insight and engagement. In generations past, turning sixty or seventy was the time people sat back, retired and believed life was pretty much over. The vitality began to drain out as they passed the light of life to their offspring to carry on in similar ways. Today it’s different as we have grown, regressed, expanded and contracted in unprecedented ways.
I’m on the front edge of the so called Baby Boomers who got caught up in a radical shift of energy in the nineteen sixties and beyond. We thought a new age was dawning and indeed it was. It however turned out to be a whole lot more intricate and confusing to navigate than we imagined. The emerging culture continued to be co-opted by entropic regressive energies that sabotaged the forward evolutionary movement. Fifty years later we’re still in transition while utopian dreams and non stop wars fire the imagination.
Today we have dreamers of all ages, genders, races, creeds and political persuasions. We have issues that span from immigration to health care, corruption to spirituality, corporate greed to environmentalism, terrorism to natural disasters and on and on. Where it stops, nobody knows. What we do know however, is that each of us have decisions to make as to how we’re going to live our lives and how much alienation and fear we’re going to allow into our spheres of influence. We must dream a new dream!
Thomas Merton, one of the great twentieth century dreamers of the Church wrote: “Let us come alive in the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things.” Teilhard de Chardin, another dreamer said: “Today, something is happening to the whole structure of human consciousness. A fresh kind of life is starting. Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world are seeking each other, so the world may come into Being.” Ann Lamott adds: “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace, only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
These sages speak of dreams that have been held by people from time in memorial. They speak of higher levels of awareness that tap into the Universal Source of Life, the ever present Divine Consciousness that lives within us and all creation. In failing to remember that we are Divine Beings, we lose our way so we can’t ‘see the beauty in ordinary things’, be moved by ‘the forces of love’ or allow the ‘mystery of grace’ to move us beyond where we are. It’s time to dream the ultimate dream of heaven on earth.
The first step toward getting anywhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are and; a destination is never a place but a radically new way of seeing things. What if we began to see this ongoing battle between this and that, mine and yours, wrong and right, should and should not, yes and no and all other dualities in a new way that neutralizes the battles and reconciles the supposed opposites? What if the opposites are simply two poles on the same magnet that can create something new? What if the ‘fresh life that’s starting’ is a move beyond duality to a greater synergy, harmony, unity?
With a polarized duality there is conflict. When a third ingredient is introduced as a reconciling or neutralizing agent something new is created, something new is birthed. This third force thus creates a new fourth energy field that the three are a part of which creates a whole new life giving atmosphere. This is what Teilhard pointed to when he spoke of ‘a fresh kind of life starting’ driven by the forces of love. Imagine an argument you’re having with another while feeling very self righteous and indignant toward them.
Take another step and imagine a third party you both respect coming into the conversation who agrees with you and agrees with the other. If you can slow way down and get quiet within, trust the reconciling agent, open your heart/mind and truly get present with the love in the third party, the other and yourself; what do you suppose would happen? You as two, now three fragments of the world come into Being together. You co-create a whole new dream for the world. As long as we keep fighting with one another and ourselves, there will never be peace on earth. It all starts here with us.
How easy it is to point our fingers and wag our tongues at others. How easy it is to become part of the problem rather than the solution and not even know it. It’s only when we awaken to ongoing compassion, appreciation, receptivity, and empathy that we truly begin to care beyond our small ego selves into our shared Source Self. When we add a cup of understanding, a bushel of love and a sea of patience a whole new environment evolves: our Being shines through and a new world is created in the moment. The new dream we ultimately dream is One that brings us all together. It starts with walking each other home. It ends with the blessing of a good-night kiss. Dream on!
- When you go to bed tonight, place a dream intention within your heart/mind. Visualize it as a prayer. Be receptive to this dream as if it’s already here and on its way. Hold it in your heart and see the beauty. When you awaken, see the beauty. Awaken to the beauty of Being that is joyfully flowing within you and the whole of creation. . .
- The next time you find yourself in disagreement with yourself or another, Stop and drop into your heart/soul space. Move beyond your ego self to say “I Am Caring. I Am Compassion. I Am Appreciating. I Am Receptivity. I Am Empathy. I Am Divine.” Stay with whatever sticks and keep it flowing until you experience Being in this Presence. . .
- Wherever you are today, find things to appreciate. See beyond the surface of things into the beauty of Being that creates all form. Notice the formlessness, the invisible energy of Life’s abundance wherever you look. Embrace the joy of this dream. . .
Rick’s blogs will be appearing once a week on Wednesday’s for an undetermined time as he attends to some other projects that he’s working on. Please remember that former posts are available at the bottom of each post and on the Blog page.
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