INSPIRED WANDER

I had an interesting dream last night, which I though I would unpack here a bit before I forget the finer details.  It was a great example of how our subconscious reaches out to communicate with us through our dreams, AKA the time when we let our socially acceptable masks drop…and are perhaps more open to receiving messages about how we are really feeling.  Are there precious lessons about ourselves to be learned from these seemly abstract streams of consciousness?

My dream last night contained a dream within a dream.  I was soaring like an eagle over a familiar yet unknown shoreline.  I would swoop down and enter the water, feeling the refreshing thrill of submerging myself completely and then soaring high above the waves again.  I can still see the trees, hills in the distance, and small wooded islands that dotted the massive lake.  Enchanting.  Then I woke up.  After waking (in my dream) from this magical flight sequence (are you still following me?) the first thought that entered my head was transformation.  How experiencing a sensation totally foreign and new such as flight, felt like the ultimate freedom, mind opening and transformative.

In the continuing dream, after I “woke” I went for a walk with a friend, describing my dream of flight, and subsequent thoughts about transformation.  Then we began to muse on the possibility of experiencing a similar sensation of freedom and transformation by reinventing some part of our lives.  Perhaps when we change some aspect of our current experience…work, location, routine, etc it opens up the possibility of totally changing and transforming ourselves.  Can profound change begin with one small step?

In this conversation with my friend (still dreaming), I asked her what she would change about herself if there were no limits, no preconceived notions about who she was or is.  In other words, if the people and circumstances in her present moment had no idea about her past, present or plans for the future.  What does that freedom feel like, and what would she do?  Transformation by simply changing the way we look at ourselves, focusing on the present moment entirely, and how we project what we truly want to the world?  My friend asked for an example.  I used the analogy of my upcoming sabbatical to Europe.  No one that I will meet there knows anything about my past or my future plans…just the person who they are engaging with in that moment.  What I decide to be true about my needs, wants and desires in that moment become reality, unattached to the past or a speculative future.  What a grand opportunity to reinvent myself, open up all the channels to creativity, serendipity and wonder!

Then I woke up.  Yes, for real this time.  Perhaps this was my inner self drawing attention to the great potential that lies before me as I prepare to leave for Europe, and a clean slate in a few weeks?  Or perhaps spirit telling me to embrace all of the possibility, light and opportunity that comes my way during this next chapter, or both.  Who knows?  One thing is for sure, I will be paying closer attention to my dreams as I continue to strip away layers of myself, and move forward with this new chapter…I suspect that they might just be signposts to help guide the way.