Summer Sings Itself

The line, from poet William Carlos Williams is In summer, the song sings itself. But I like it shortened to the title of this blog post. Either way, you get the idea. The soft breezes of summer, the dappled light, the blue blue sky and waters, the winged things cruising and floating and flitting, the stars and sunsets and twilight indigo that thrills me every time. And maybe, tonight, here on Vashon Island, maybe even a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis, courtesy of a major solar event, It's all part of the dreaming we swim in, the song that sings itself.

Dreaming is traditionally undervalued in our work hard, make stuff, buy stuff, be somebody civilization, while simultaneously being honored in art, music and stories everywhere we look. Even there, often it's a thing to struggle to keep alive; as in keep the dream alive, hang on to your dreams, etc. We're taught to push ourselves through our days, weeks, lives, to meet goals. It creates a lot of friction as we push through, and anything we hadn't foreseen appears as an obstacle in our path. Or a failure. Irritating.

I've always been a dreamer. I was born that way, and that's how I roll. Most important life changes have first appeared to me in dreams. As I've given myself over more and more to dreaming as a full time practice, as my real job, the more I'm able to relax into dreaming—awake, asleep, or in journeying—the easier it is to stay in the dreaming field and be present. The more you look the more you see is a bit of guidance I was given recently while dreaming awake. On the audio channel, then, the more you listen the more you hear. Including summer singing itself, and dreaming you up with it.

Things I saw this week include a little Rumi poem that goes

When I run after what I think I want,
My days are a furnace of distress and anxiety;
If I sit in my own place of patience,
What I need flows to me,
And without any pain.
From this I understand that
What I want also wants me,
Is looking for me
And attracting me;
When it cannot attract me
Any more to go to it,
It has to come to me.
There is a great secret
In this for anyone
Who can grasp it.

I stumbled over it—or it dreamed me up—exactly at a perfect time in my dreaming up reality, aka getting shit done without losing heart. I applied it to my hypnopompic state: that liminal zone when you're waking up but not fully awake. It's my favorite state, and I've talked about how I allow myself to stay in the drift and let dreams linger and process. But with this advice from Rumi, I allowed myself to give over fully to my occupation as dreamer, as my modus operandi for real, and found a subtle but remarkable shift occur.

You know, the way you 'shake off' your dreaming to get going; how you shift into waking life with a bit of a push, some adrenaline, like you stayed in dreaming too long and are now behind on what you're supposed to be getting done. I let that go completely. I am allowing dreaming to be real in that way, and to relax about the shift between realities more than ever. It's making a significant difference in my Being, in being able to carry the dreaming consciousness into the day with grace, into feeling soft and plugged in to the field of infinite possibilities Deepak Chopra talks about, from which you dream up whatever you want. Applying Rumi's 'great secret' you let its wanting you as you want it to guide it to you, and welcome its arrival.

In journeying sessions with clients, I observe the energy that begins moving around them as we talk about their concerns and wishes. That guides the intent we create for the journey. The intent then guides where the journey takes me, and the work the helpers show me to do. As an energy wrangler, I am shown what energies need wrangling at this time, and the universe works through me. It's all energy.

As shaman Viejo Itza said to John Perkins, in his book Shapeshifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation: 

"It all boils down to a question of energy. Energy. It is everything. We are energy. The earth, the trees down there, this pyramid. The universe. Energy. That is all there is to it. The shapeshifter believes she can influence her relationship with the physical world. Therefore, she can. It is only a matter of energy. And belief. And one more thing. Intent. If we understand that everything is energy, it is easy to understand the importance of intent. How can you influence energy without first intending to do so?"

This is the multicultural essence, or the core shamanic tenet. In the book Healing with Form, Energy and Light: the Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, he writes: 

"In the shamanic view, the soul abides in the heart center in the central channel. The soul is not healed until the energy is brought into the subtlest level of experience. The sign of accomplishment in the practice is that the whole being is affected. The more strongly you can generate the experiences in the practice, the more profound the effects will be."

Restoring wholeness is the accomplishment of shamanic work, and practice. It is the overarching aim of energy wrangling with belief and intent in a profound way. In doing this work, this practice, the energy moves through the practitioner. Being in a dreaming state 24/7 allows this to happen fluidly with grace and ease. There is no big shift needed from belief in ordinary reality to opening to non-ordinary reality, which is expanded in dimensions and has different laws of physics, space and time. By allowing myself to give over fully to being a dreamer I am deepening my work and advancing my practice. Instead of there being a contradiction between work and dreaming, it is one and the same.

Arnold Mindell suddenly appeared last night on the news feed in a rare little video his partner Amy shot while they walked through a forest, saying Don't forget, the dreaming comes first!  His showing up, 'live' as it were, right then, to affirm the dreaming comes first, was a synchronicity of the first magnitude. I commented to him on it, and included the Rumi poem and my shift, and he affirmed it again. That energy from him is priceless to me, and he also got an instant affirmation from me as the universe 'getting it' and being grateful for his message. 

​So, kids, as you enjoy your Sunday singing itself, remember: the dreaming comes first. Let yourself dream up what you want, without the ifs ands and buts or the how am I where do I what do I s enter into your process. Dream all you want. Know that what you want wants you. Believe and intend and relax. And dream some more. And let summer sing itself.







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