Moss Creek, Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Gardens, Desert Island, Maine
“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” ~ Emily Dickinson
A – Z Challenge – Day 19
Riding the Waves
In my dreams lately, I’m walking through the forest of my youth, heading toward the sea. Sometimes the dreams are reminders to let something go; sometimes they act as a remembrance of what was and how that experience molded my current life.
If you are awake, you know we’re riding the waves right now.
We’re floating in boats without oars, under a dome of blinking stars, surrounded by glowing sea life, and the occasional hump back whale.
We’re on our way somewhere new, but we don’t know where. Yet.
We’re just certain that a lot of the baggage we’ve been hauling from place to place, must go overboard. As it sinks into the dark waters around us, we search for that one talisman that will carry us through all this change. We long for the familiar voice or the one activity that always erases the emptiness.
For me, it’s words. It is the blank pages I am slowly and deliberately filling with words of gratitude — for what was, for what may come to pass, for what is. I am thankful every single day. I am thankful for the iridescent filaments of my life and for its heart of darkness. Every bit is needed to build a cohesive whole.
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“It is not the light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” ~ Frederick Douglass
We’re Lit Up; We’re Taking Wing
The drumbeat of change is upon us.
There’s no denying it. Open your news browser and read the headlines. Ships sinking. Earthquakes.Volcanic activity. Plane crashes. Mass shootings.
It’s grim.
However, to me, all that mayhem signals that a huge shift is underway.
And some of us are floating on our backs, becoming the waves, while others are making a different choice. We all have free will. We all come to the world to learn what we need to learn.
“Happiness is not found in the things you possess, but in what you have the courage to let go.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
Shifting tides. The hourglass winds down.
So, this week I dreamed I lost my wallet. I’m watching a film, carrying everything I own in a white garbage bag. I am with people I know sitting in a dreary theater with mismatched, lumpy chairs. We’re uncertain we are in the right place. Someone’s playing a pipe organ and singing an old Irish song. I can’t make out the words, but a fiddler and a harmonica player riff and wail.
I can feel my heart pumping in my chest. What’s left now?
We have barely anything, but there’s this: we’re together and we’re watching a new story unfold.
We’re letting go. We’re letting it all go.
As we must.
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Note: If you want more information on the changes, listen to Anne Ortelee’s Weekly Weather on Blogtalk Radio.
© 2014 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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