Owls and Orchids

image courtesy of waking-up.org

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
― T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

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I am so very grateful for my dreams as they bring me solutions I cannot find when I am awake and hopes and plans for the future I want to make.  They bring light and life, colour and hope when things seem dark and bleak. They reassure me that the morning will come and all things are possible to those who dream, even day dreamers.

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There are so many people who with absolute certainty, will tell you that they do not dream.  What they are really saying is that they do not remember their dreams. I’m certain of this because the sub conscious is never asleep, it continues to process everything which has happened, not only during the day just past but also from days long gone. As our subconscious tries to find solutions or explanations for whatever has occurred during that day, it draws on the vast store of information we have accumulated.

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Our bodies are amazing organisms. In the course of one hour, let alone one day, millions of processes are performed to enable us to do what we want or need to do.  The powerhouses of these processes are the heart and the brain. Without one the other cannot function, a brain without a heart dies, a heart without a brain, a breathing but unknowing organism.  Without dreams, we would go insane.  It’s like a master computer mainframe on a maintenance pattern,  if the backup is incomplete the computer malfunctions.  Not an analogy I like but it seems apt and accurate.

image courtesy of shinyshiny.tv

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Tim Berners-Lee said: “Let’s use the internet as a giant brain”.  

So the idea is hardly new.

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So what happens when someone either cannot sleep or whose sleep is so interrupted they cannot reach that deep  rem pattern where dreams occur?  In extreme cases I’ve heard of people going insane.  Insomnia is the bane of modern society as the pressure of doing more in less time stresses so many that they lose the ability to relax.

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At present I almost envy those who are able to meditate easily, relax at will and sleep soundly with the peace of small  children.  I say almost because I realise envy is a useless emotion, gaining no-one anything.  Yet I cannot help but dream of finding out what it feels like to relax, meditate with ease and sleep the sleep of the innocent.

image courtesy of wedharma.com

This is one of my favourite pictures of someone blissfully meditating in a beautiful place. It’s one of the places “I go” to meditate and relax, or at least try to.  Sometimes it comes easy and sometimes it slips through my fingers like drops of water into a pond, unable to be held.

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Today I need my blissful retreat and have found only droplets of water trickling through my fingers.  It feels as though the “weight of the world” lies heavy on my shoulders and whilst I know this is an exaggeration, it is hard to find that “attitude of gratitude” I’ve been cultivating like a tender seedling for so long.  What disappoints me most is that it should disappear so easily. I will bounce back, I always do, and I will continue my gratitude journal since I have found so many more things I had previously not considered to be grateful for. This is a beautiful thing.

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“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach

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I am designing my order for a delightful dream. I will start it off before I fall asleep and my subconscious will embroider something far better than I could have imagined.  My “Dream Catcher”  hanging over my bed will keep those unsettling thoughts far away and tomorrow will be a bright, new and optimistic day.

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I look at the beautiful orchids my husband brought home for me, without words saying “I love you, I’m here for you and I will slay the dragons if they appear in your dreams”.  Love is such a wonderful and powerful gift. I have been truly blessed.

image courtesy of
image courtesy of  hweiming.com

“The appearance of things change according to the emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty really are in ourselves”- Kahlil Gibran.