Dear Ma HuLliLi,

A house mouse was wrecking a bit of devastation so I set a live trap. It fell for the bait and is trapped by this morning. Mice come back in if simply let outside; I need to take it farther away than my neighborhood or the next.

My plan is to meditate but I don’t want it to have to wait that long for freedom. So early off together we go, heading for the park where I set it free in a place filled with bark and other bits, and pecans dropped from nearby trees.

There are dry grasses here for cover and seed pods waiting to open up to Spring, and rushes rustling near the pond. It’s a fine place for mouses. And as for my musings, what better place? So after little mouse scurried away I take my time there on the rock in the sun.

I listen. One of my favorite forms of meditation is eyes-closed listening… listening close, listening far, listening in between… it always leads to listening within.

Near, I hear rustling in the leaves at my feet. Expanding that, I hear the birds in the trees and wind in the branches. A ways away, there are friendly voices. And high above there’s a hawk calling in flight.

Listening far, there is traffic, away in the distance. It sounds almost like rushing water from here. And farther still, from time to time, a faint honk or two. Farther than that and it is quiet. Quiet. I listen to the far silence and soon I fall inside out.

Article Highlights:

• Hold your dream like a puppy
• Be a dream magnet
• Awakened dreaming

Dear Day Dreamer,

I just spoke with a friend who related that in her 4th grade class recently she and her co-teacher read the Langston Hughes poem Hold Fast to Dreams.

Hold fast to dreams/ For if dreams die/ Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot Fly/ Hold fast to dreams/ For when dreams go/ Life is a barren field/ Frozen with snow.

After reading the poem they had discussion about having a dream, and the children wrote poems about it. During the discussion, the other teacher asked the children what they thought it meant to hold fast to their dream.

My friend shared a few of the answers given. They were wonderful, of course. This led me to prompt my friends with younger children to ask their children the same question. Their answers contain so much wisdom for us grownups. Here they are for your own reflection and enjoyment.

What does it mean to hold fast to your dream?

• Spend time really imagining it.
• Hold on to it like a puppy.
• Feel the electricity of it.
• Enjoy your dream, don’t worry about it.
• Take your dream seriously, ‘cuz it matters to you.
• Learn what is real about your dream.
• Speak your dream out loud because words make dreams real.
• Pin your dream up in your head and look at it a lot.
• Don’t be afraid you won’t get it, because you will.
• Give your dream a big hug.
• If your dream wants you to work for it don’t be too afraid to.
• Don’t forget you dreamed it.
• Be like a magnet that sucks dreams to it.
• Dream it real.

Young children are certainly our experts on making daydreams a daily reality. It’s a good moment in time for us to reflect on how children do this so much more simply and effectively than we do.

The process of creating the world we want is actually the high Art of Dreaming – what I call Awakened Dreaming – and your inner kid is chomping to get on with it! Dream it real, fellow dreamer, dream it real.

See you in the DreamTime, dear Awakened Dreamer.

Warmest hugs,
~Mayet