DREAM STATE
BY TRACY SCHLAPP
Calm your inner thoughts.
Strength lies in small things like
dreams and sleep.
Remembering the beauty of
whatever you focus on will be
there in the wake up of life,
from silent movements in your mind,
to awareness of all the green growth.
Carolyn Stickley (aka Grannie), Bear — Silent Movement
It’s a good week to heed Grannie’s advice: You need more sleep — we all do.
Our well-being depends on turning inward, the internal rhythm of sleeping. It gives our neurons the opportunity to build pathways to store and filter new information. We need it consistently — it is a process that can’t be rushed. Brains depend on dreaming, that rinse cycle that organizes and filters information for the next period of consciousness. While the constructed human world has solutions for protecting our bodies from the elements, managing food storage, etc… there is no artificial replacement for sleep. Our animal selves require us to curl up and dream.
As it turns out, our waking state also needs those dreamy spaces. My eyes wander outside my office window. I am aligned with a crisp view of Mount Hood, the waxing gibbous moon to my left. The bare trees line the Willamette River. It is slow going — this little bit of writing. But the pleasure of the moment exceeds any urgency to complete the post. The sunlight on a January afternoon is restorative in the Pacific Northwest. Likewise, after a long string of hot summer days, those first overcast mornings in fall are a respite.
If only the fog might hold me fast —
long just enough
anointing me in stillness and peace.
Covering me ever so in layers of soft and serene.
Suspended in midair,
drawing ionic energy from the atmosphere.
Jai, Fog Lined
Jai and his fellow prisoners live in a state of hypervigilance. It takes a toll on their health — prisoners are more likely to suffer from illness such as hypertension, asthma, cancer, and infectious diseases. Insomnia is chronic. The dream-state like those foggy mornings are a moment of restoration.
Tensions have been running high in all my circles, which is a good reason to publish Shalyn Troxel’s guided mediation — we close our eyes in writing group and she shares one just about every meeting. In today’s she conjures the quiet relaxation of the natural world: “Picture yourself lying in a field. The grass is a little long, and it’s blowing gently across your body. It is tickling the back of your arms and your calves slightly. It feels welcoming, so you don’t move. You start to hear a couple of hummingbirds fluttering about and the wind is blanketing you with a soft breeze. Other than that, you don't hear anything.” Today, set aside some time to day dream a little. | TDS