The Nature of the Sky

                      When I was a babe, my mother, the earth, spoke to me.  "My child," she said, "the sky is a river, and our world swims through it.  The stars you see at night are other worlds, and we are all carried in the Great Maker's net."  Then she granted me dreams of strange skies and different seas, and I believed her.
                      When I was old enough to hunt alone, my father, the moon, spoke to me.  "My child, the sky is a great valley, and the sun a buffalo that roams through it.  The stars you see at night are the mighty warriors who pursue the sun."  And he granted me dreams of strong hunters and a shining prey, and I believed him.
                       You tell me that the sky is empty space, and the stars are giant fires burning very far away.  You tell me that the river and the valley are illusion, that the hunters and the worlds are myths and falsehoods.  You give me not dreams, but ideas as cold and hard as the iron tools you bear, and ask me to believe you.  And I do believe what you say, of the sky and the stars.
                       Yet just because the sky is empty space, why should it not also be a river, and a valley?  Just because the stars are enormous fires, why should they not be hunters and worlds as well?  You think you have knowledge, but you have closed your eyes.
                        Shall I teach you to open them again?

Feel Good Friday: The Lion in the Mirror

                    This week's Feel Good Friday is the first picture I've selected, but I hope that it speaks to all of you like it did to me.  You may remember that in 'Thinking vs. Wanting' I mentioned a phrase that kills all dreams: "I can't do that."  Today's picture, on the other hand, illustrates how to keep dreams alive.

                     Like the kitten in the photo, we need to be able to see ourselves as we want to be every time we look in the mirror.  While acknowledging the sometimes frustrating reality that right now we are just adorable fuzzy kittens, we must never lose sight of the lion we intend to be.  There is nothing wrong and (as anyone who has ever cuddled a kitten will tell you) a great deal that is right about being a kitten.  Everyone is a kitten at some point, and some of us take longer than others to grow out of it.  But as long as you can see the lion in the mirror, "I can't do that" becomes "I can't do that yet."
                     I know that right now I'm just a young woman, hardly out of her teens, with a retail job and no degree.  I am still a kitten. But I also know that some day I will be a counselor.  I will hold an advanced degree, and help young people who are struggling with the same kinds of problems I have overcome.  And I will help them to see their own personal lions in the mirror.

Lots of Love,
~ Jennifer

P.S.  I'd love to hear about your own lions in the mirror.  If you'd like to share, send me an e-mail or leave a comment below!

P.P.S.  I looked for the origin of this picture but could not find any information on it.  If you happen to know who originally created the image, please let me know so that I can give proper credit!

Frustrating Dreams

                       The past few nights I have been having a series of odd dreams.  Odd for me at least, but then, my dreams are usually fantastic adventures that have little or nothing to do with everyday life.  These dreams, however, are actually more like memories.
                       So far, I have had only one memory-dream per night.  But the memory repeats over and over, a different memory each night.  Each one is a moment that I wish I had handled differently, usually because I ended up hurting someone's feelings.  After the first two or three repeats, I start to be able to change things, but the changes are never for the better.  I wake up miserable, feeling guilty and vaguely as if I made things worse somehow, even though it's just a dream.
                       I assume that this has something to do with unresolved feelings about those moments, but I don't know what more I can do.  It's not like I can go back and change things, even if I managed to not make things worse as I do in my dreams.  And most of the people involved I'm no longer even in contact with.
                       Dreams are frustrating.