Sleep, Dream

Reality is okay, but the blend of waking ideals is full of conflict and disillusion. Certainly, there are those who are living their lives, fulfilling their dreams. But for the most part there are as many, if not far more, who are in despair. For them, dreams are no longer pleasant, but sour, dried up and lifeless cancer cells in their body, slowly draining the life out of them. Dreams have become reasons to be easily agitated and on always on edge. And unknown to them, it isn't that they have given up on their dreams as it is, they have surrendered hope and courage to act.

So go back to sleep my friend. Crawl back in bed and sleep until dreaming becomes your reality. You came out of the cocoon too early, helped out by a well meaning, sleepless dreamer who was also "rescued" before their time. Allow your dream life to regain its life giving energy and to feed your will and your mind. Allow your reason to be influenced by the same energy that formed the universe and fuels exploration, discovery and innovation. That energy that allows a child to play for hours, to build "imaginary" castles and be doctors, dancers and warriors, that "stuff" still resides in the very marrow of your bones! It's in your Deoxyribonucleic acid - your DNA! And though it may seem like "the devil" holds the deed to your soul, he could no more "rent it," than hold you down! No, what has occurred is you have forgotten that dreams are meant to be lived! And that dreams are the very stuff of life!

Go back to bed; sleep a little longer. Lie in the comfort of possibility! And stay there until you are truly alive again!

Thought for The Day - Discovery

After the Dance 18 x 24 mixed media

We can never know all there is to know and yet it behooves us to know all we can...

Years ago, I dated a young lady who, before I met her, seemed like she would be a complete mystery. Being shy myself and unwilling to face rejection, I was hesitant, to say the least to approach her. I allowed her sophisticated persona to dazzle me. But in spite of all the barriers, I went for it, asked her out or at least offered her ride home from church. We talked on the way to her home and in little or no time, we were getting to know one another. For a few weeks, I would give her a ride from Bible study and even picked her up a few times and in the brief period we dated, I got to know a lot of facts about her life. I found out she wasn't as aloof and sophisticated as I thought. She was no slouch, had a good mind, but she was down-to-earth and very open to talk.

At some point, in one of our long conversations, I said to her: "you're telling all of these details about you, but I still feel like there's much more you're not telling me." Like so many people I talk with, I find it's easy to get the "facts" of our lives out on the table, but we never get to the heart of who we are. We can tell about "this", reveal a little of "that" ("except, I won't tell you about the heartache I suffered as a result of _____ and how that still haunts me at this very moment.") but it amounts to "surface details." I get it, I understand; I'm not an open book, though I hope through this format, a great deal of what I think about and how I feel is revealed. Funny: it just hit me this media is an opportunity to unveil the "secret life of Eddie."

Here's a couple more interesting truths I've discovered:

• For whatever reason, some people tell a great many "half-truths" about themselves, even when they tell you their being candid, open and honest. If you dig "around" what is said, you find there's far more to the story. It always leaves me wondering why the "whole truth" wasn't told. In sharing what is uttered, I wonder about what "you" want me to know and why it's necessary to withhold what is...
• The walls we erect and the parts of us we share are all one big picture. When we ignore or highlight only one part, the damage, pain and hurt we hide does not get healed. And like our bodies, these wonderful regenerative vessels we inhabit, what could be healing, when it is 'misapplied' (or should I say "when healing is refused") we create a place where hurt spreads like a cancer.

I leave you with this quote, apply it liberally to you life: "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, You will make me to know wisdom." Psalms 51:6 (NKJV)