Dreams

The word dream has several meanings and a lot of connotations. Most of us are very familiar with at least two of three of them. First there are the sleeping dreams, those often strange and puzzling adventures that come to us at night. We may be simply an observer, an active participant, or even seem to be someone other than who we are in the here and now. Some of them are very vivid and seem 'real' when we wake up while others are fragmented and seem to make no sense at all. I think most of them do carry a message from either our subconscious mind, departed spirits or souls linked to ours, perhaps a guardian angel or spirit guide or maybe from some other source. But unraveling what that message may be can be a huge challenge.

I do not put a lot of stock in most of the books that purport to tell us the 'real' meaning of various objects, people or situations we may experience in the dream realm. I think most of them were written by the same school of analysts who declare with lofty contempt that women who smoke suffer from p**is envy or a desire for a certain male appendage! Bull hockey! I never smoked a lot but I can assure you I never once in my life really wanted to be male or sport male equipment! As the song went, "I enjoy being a girl!" However, I was a tomboy and maybe that met any needs I might have had to take on some masculine attributes or activites.

Then there are daydreams--those mostly pleasant scenarios we construct to pass time or to escape from a boring or unpleasant reality that we find ourselves in the midst of. Those of us who are of a creative bent were probably often chided in school for gazing out the window and drifting off into a daydream when we were supposed to be studying or listening to a hugely boring dissertation about English or algebra or ancient Mesopotamia! I know I was but a lot of those daydreams found their way into poems and stories that I wrote.

Sometimes, if we are a believer in the such philosophies as The Secret and The Law of Attraction daydreams could be considered visualization and maybe if we build them with enough substance could materialize desired events or objects to appear in our lives! On that I am not quite sure; so far my efforts have not succeeded very well. Maybe I just do not have enough faith or focus! But I do keep dreaming...

And then there are 'dreams' which might also be called goals or wishes or items for our bucket list or other collection of things we want to see, do, be, accomplish or acquire. For me some of those are watching the Iditarod sled dog race in person--once I even dreamed of competing but at my age that is a bit far fetched even to dream of! Others are to learn to fly an airplane, again probably out of reach for this lifetime and maybe to make a significant best seller list with someething I wrote. I would love to travel to the British Isles and visit some of the ancient sites and places where my Celtic ancestors walked, to Australia, and to regions in the Middle East which are now very dangerous and hardly hospitable to a liberated western woman! Again not likely but one never knows. Maybe a 'sugar daddy' will show up who wants to take me to my dream places! And yes I do 'dream' of kilted laddies and cowboys and the idea of being able to dance as they did in Riverdance!

Do these far-fetched wishes and goals have a purpose? Yes, I think they do. Even when we know rationally that they are far out of our reach, they tend to draw us along, keep our imaginations active and maybe inspire us to do related or somehow connected things that are more within our grasp. I know my special dreams do start my 'what if' mechanism working and many a story evolves from that start. A few of my writings have actually begun as a sleeping dream too. More on that another day.

Just a suggestion: why not start a dream collage? Cut out pictures from magazines, collect images on line or do your own art work to build some scenes and events and post this visualization where you can see it every day and be reminded and inspired. Who knows what might come of it?

Follow your dreams with confidence and devotion!

Sunsets Part Two--verses

Poetry has been my favorite literary form for only a few less years than I have lived. I wrote my first simple verse at the age of eight. The first of these verses was written when I was the lofty age of twelve and becoming a bit more sophisicated in my rhymes! The others came along later... Thanks for sharing with me here!

Evening
When the sun is dying in the west
That’s the time I love the best--
When twilight begins to fall
Lending beauty and grace to all.
GMW, C: 1955

At Sunset
Such beauty spread across the heavens vast,
Such colors exquisite and unsurpassed.
It is a precious gift that gives such rapture
But it is too delicate, alas, to capture.
Its colors rare defy the artist’s hand;
Its creation only God can understand.
The sunset’s beauty holds me quite enthralled.
It can’t be kept but it can be recalled.
So when skies are gray as in December,
I simply close my eyes and then remember . . . .
GMW, 8 Apr 1963



Pensamientos Entre Dos Luces*

The rays of twilight reflect across the vacant hills.
The silence echoes in my responsive ears.
I listen to the silence and read its messages.
The sky is adrift now with the shades of sundown.
Its glow reflects in my eager eyes.
I absorb the glow and it colors my dreams.
The air is alive now with the vibrancy of silence.
Its music responds to the harmony of evening.
My soul matches chords with the music of night.
The earth is transformed by the beauty of nightfall.
My responsive spirit absorbs its splendor.
I am reborn and I too am beautiful.
The rays of twilight reflect in my eyes.
My soul’s voice echos the melody of silence.
The shades of sundown dye my face, my hair.
GMW, 1963
*Thoughts between two lights

Sunset Cipher
Coral and rose on faded blue,
Still at last ‘neath the broad dark sky,
Fragile runes traced in the sky
Above the patient mountain ranks.
My destiny is writ on high.
If I could only learn to read
In clouds the hidden, coded word.
What secrets might be known to me
That none have ever heard?
GMW, C: 1990

Sunsets

Although sunset does not start with a D, they are and long have been a favorite thing of mine. I have many photos taken beginning when I was using a little Kodak "Brownie" box camera way back in the dark ages and moving all the way to the digital age through several 35mm SLR cameras of varying quality, both slides and negatives! Someday I will get them all scanned.

Arizona and New Mexico, because of the dust in the air I am told, are both known for fantastic sunsets. I'm not sure what season is the best for them as I have seen beauties in every season of the year. Usually the only requirement is some clouds to pick up the colors and their position in the sky so the sun can shine underneath them as it goes down. The picture on the opening of this blog is one I took about a month ago right here in my new home in Alamogordo, NM. I am at the edge of the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains which are the location for several communities such as Ruidoso, Cloudcroft and Capitan. There is a lot of history here but I will save that for another time. Anyway the locale gives me a great view across the Tularosa Valley to the San Augustin and Organ mountains that separate this valley from the Rio Grande Valley.

While there is not a spectacular sunset every evening, they are frequrent and a few are absolutely breath taking. The one on the left was the same evening as the opening shot and the other was last fall shortly after I arrived. In a separate post I'll add a few verses about sunsets that I composed over the years. Enjoy!