Three dreams I had last night stand out clear enough to remember and comment on.
In one dream I was getting ready to play tennis again after a long time away from the game. Some adjustments needed to be made before I could play. Specifically, the net needed to be lowered so it would be easier for me to get the ball over it. A lot of time was spent on retying each side of the net in three specific places to the poles that were holding the net up. It was important to tie them in the right places just for me. At one point I even had to use a sweater I was wearing to fully tie the net in the right place. I was fully present with the process of putting the net in the right place for me to play tennis again. Finally I was ready to play. In the dream I don't recall actually playing tennis, but a little later in a dream reflection while I was still asleep I realized that there really isn't any need to lower a tennis net to be able to hit a ball over it. The net is low enough, and hitting a ball over it is actually very easy. In that dream state I was asking myself, "for what purpose was all of that preparation and work?" I will get back to this after I relay the other dreams.
In the next dream I was walking along a paved trail with several of my family members. The trail ran along the edge of a cemetery in which there were dozens of burials happening or waiting to happen. Most of the dead people waiting to be buried were not in coffins, it was a gruesome scene of dead bodies and grieving and lost souls. Our group was aware of the burials, of the death all around us, but we were not part of it, and knew that we did not need to engross ourselves in it, and we continued to walk along the path.
The third dream involved an older couple that was unfamiliar to me. They had acquired a brand new "old timey" car. It was large and black with smooth curves. The couple had invited me to go somewhere with them, and we spent quite a bit of time getting into the car, making sure the doors would shut and not close anyone in them. Also, in the front hood, there were spaces to put the food that the couple was taking to their event, so it would stay warm near the engine. We got the food situated and the woman all tucked into her seat, and finally closed the door. This happened several times. Meanwhile the man waited semi-patiently in the driver's seat. He was relatively anxious to get going. He almost took off without making sure I was in the car safely in the back seat, after I'd spent a good amount of energy to ensure they were both comfortable and enclosed properly.
If there's a common theme with these three dreams, it seems it would be about preparation, or preparing for things/events that don't need so much time and energy for preparation. Why all of the unnecessary adjusting for the tennis net to play again? Why all of the preparation to get in this new old car and go somewhere I'm not sure of with these people I don't know? Why is the cemetery so full of people preparing to bury their loved ones? Why am I so involved in the tennis net and car preparation and not at all in the burial preparation?
My thoughts on this are spiritual in nature. If we are of Spirit and that is our true nature, but we have forgotten on this earthly plane, what do we really need to do to remember we are of Spirit, and live a Spirit-filled life? If there is an awareness of this importance, our current collective consciousness seems to need tools to get us to that understanding and remembering. Tools are great as long as we feel we need them. By tools, I mean anything that helps us remember or reclaim or re-experience our Oneness with Source. This could be through meditation, acupuncture, toning, bodywork, a walk in nature, going to church, reading inspiring works, and many others. They all have inherent personal value as stepping stones to knowing our connection.
Ultimately we don't need any of the tools, we just need to know we are connected, we are perfect, all of our needs are met, and we are fully loved. It seems that many people spend a lot of time, energy, and money in tools to help them re-connect. I am certainly no stranger to using tools, for I have many at my disposal, and I use them as an acupuncturist for these purposes to help others. I often tell patients when I first see them (if I sense they are receptive), that acupuncture is merely a tool for helping people tap into their own energy, and healing themselves. It's an energy training of sorts, and ultimately people can, and hopefully will, learn to heal themselves, it is not only a gift through the acupuncturist or meditation leader, or whomever is holding the tools at the moment.
At some point, tools can become crutches, or maybe even obstacles to reaching our goals. If all of my time and energy was spent on getting the net just right to make it easier to lob the ball, what happened to simply playing the game? The same with the car trip to the unknown with all of the energy spent making sure we're safe and secure, we never actually went anywhere. This reminds of when I first learned some of the tools of Science of Mind/Religious Science, mainly the use of affirmations to realign my thinking and thoughts about myself and Life and things that didn't appear to be working well. I spent well over a year affirming over and over in my journal the affirmations I wanted to be true in my life, specifically about being in a happy and healthy, loving and mutually respectful relationship. Three whole pages every day were devoted to realigning my thoughts with affirmations.
One day I realized that I was stuck in the affirmations, the tool, and that by affirming what I wanted to be I was also affirming what I didn't yet have. I was holding it all in place with the affirmations. I decided I was done writing about it, I was ready to live it. With conviction, I let go of the tool and the affirmations, and my life began its whirlwind journey to where I am now, living the life those early affirmations and new thoughts set forth. In the process I learned new tools, mainly meditation, acupuncture, colorpuncture, breathing, multi-incarnational sessions, and workshops that helped with each step when I felt I needed them.
If playing tennis is a metaphor for remembering my connection to my Source, and lowering the net is an unnecessary tool to make it easier to lob the ball over or to remember that connection, all I really need to do is start playing tennis and know my connection without a doubt in every moment. No net preparation necessary. This, to me, means living each moment knowing I'm connected to our Source, being as present as possible and sending and receiving Divine Love all the time, and not be attached to the tools that have helped me get to this point from the past. Their only value is what I place on them currently and what I have placed on them in the past. If I forget my connection and lose faith or trust, I imagine the tools are still there and could be useful for remembering to the extent that I feel I need them.
I know in this third and fourth dimensional world so much is based on the physical, the scientific, the tangible, and that physical death seems like an incredible loss. On the personality level, it is devastating the pain and grief and worry we go through when loved ones become ill or transition suddenly from this dimension to their soul's next level, as they/we lay our bodies aside so that our souls are free. In our society especially, there seems to be a lot of fear and sadness around death of the physical body. On a soul level, however, this transition is a remembering, a celebration, a re-birthing into the beauty and connection with Source, and while the personality healing experiences are necessary for emotional healing and karmic re-balancing, they are not necessary for our soul's remembering. It seems a strange polar world we live in, and we always have the choice where we place our focus and intention.
Constantly Life is showing us that we have a choice of how to perceive the events that occur around us, and we can choose to propagate the karma or lift out of it and love from a different place in our hearts. From choosing a new perspective, profound events have taken place in my life which, I feel, have propelled me further along the path of choosing from a conscious soul perspective rather than a personality perspective. I am definitely not saying that my unconscious mind doesn't still drive me to whatever extent, it will as long as I have this human form with an ego, but my conscious intention lay in the focus of conscious soul decisions that may override the karma that my ego has created in the past.
I've had a few "tool-free" spontaneous enlightening experiences, but have yet to experience Life fully lived (at least this lifetime) in constant, complete and utter knowing of my connection to my Source. My life has come to a very consistent happy place, and yet I know there is an even deeper experience than celebrating the work and manifestations of my intention. I intend to look at what tools I've been using lately that may be keeping me "safe" and "stuck" in my current intentions and experiments, and discern what I'm ready to release and experience more deeply into knowing my connection with All That Is and what that means for my Life currently lived.
