It's been a long time since I dreamed...

I was jumping. I jumped as high as the inside of the school's gymnasium. I grabbed a hold of the middle I-beam. As impressed as the few friends watching were, the landing was always the toughest. it always hurt the knees, no matter how I tried to shield them. Then there were the other times of jumping over the trees in the forest near Yosemite, just didn't feel like walking around any more. My favorites though were the times where I could just soar or swim the skies. It was such a freedom up in the clouds as they passed by as if no time to stop for a greeting.

The worst were the ones about the sea or water, probably rooted in the one about Little Fredrickson's boy falling into the pool presumably because of something I had done, after all, I had signed my name in the freeze frame. The most frightening was the wave of infinite circles all crashing in the middle of where I was on my boogie board. The waves, the dark- all descending onto the place where I was.

These are the major themes of the two stories- the ones about the ability of ascending and those about descending. Either way, those have been the majority of the substances of my dreams in years past. These days, however, sleep is hard to come by either through sheer will-power to "get through" a paper or to just watch that show that I haven't seen because I haven't had so much time because of said homework. One would actually have to sleep for them to show themselves. It's been a long time since I dreamed...of either.

Day #14 "Wife Song"

This is day #14 of the 25 day, 25 song challenge...

• Day 14 (11/18/14): Song That Reminds You of Your Wife...

                             The song that reminds me of my wife would have to be "God Gave Me You" by David Barnes but performed by Blake Shelton:

Thin Places...

"Thin Places"- Has nothing to do with dieting. It's an idea that I came across when I was reading I BECAME A CHRISTIAN AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT By Vince Antonucci. He talks about seeing God in the unexpected places; flickers of God's handy work. He says in the book that he gets the idea of the ancient Celtics held that there were places and times where the veil between Natural and Supernatural was the "thinnest". He says, "When you're in a thin place you are able to catch a glimpse of God, and it becomes easier to sense His presence." He goes on to give examples of watching a movie and your heart clenches up or a sunset causes you to stop and to say "thank you" and so on. For me it's usually when listening to music. There are words or phrasings that draw me to the Divine One or they reflect His love, grace, forgiveness, mercy or justice. The other day there was a song called SEAN by Stavesacre I was listening to what was said:

"Come on out – it's only rain
Don't you miss how it feels on your skin?
Come on out – it's only rain
I like how it feels on my skin
It feels clean
So come on out"

For some reason I couldn't help thinking of some of my friends who shut themselves inside, which isn't always literal. usually it's more of the idea of either not becoming like those "outside" or afraid of being hurt by others or circumstances on the outside. This song took me to a thin place where we as people wish we could escape the messy, wet world we live in and in not engaging the world around us we can become sullied by our own underdeveloped longing for connectivity. We sit in the mire we've created instead of letting God and/or others to help us clean up. Those who stay "inside" may not get "wet" but they also don't get cleaned! At least this is the thin place where the song took me. I hurt for friends who refuse to "come on out" to feel the rain on their skin to be made clean once more. I just get sad when I think about it.

So what are your "thin places"? It could be a place you go that helps thin the veil or it could be a time or event or what have you. I want to hear about it. Maybe we could be strengthened by what we read here from each other!

His Peace,
-mark-
(08/28/2009)

I hope the real world never operates like this...



My dream last night:



My friend picked me up for church. He had called me and asked if he could. I said sure but that I'd have to get there early to practice for worship. He didn't mind so long as we got a bite to eat before. We got to church had practice. Then service began. Then the musical part of the service. The music was good if not great. I wasn't leading but it was still the best I've ever played. I felt good about the music but bad about the way we were worshiping. We even ended the service with people sitting or kneeling on the ground as a sign of humility. The only problem was, it didn't seem like anyone was humbled. Somehow it felt like everyone was just as haughty as ever, which made me sad about the whole church service. As the time came for me to pack up my guitar and such I see my friend leaving the sanctuary seemly angry, not to mention I wasn't getting a ride home. I went after him to see what was up. He was angry but he wouldn't say why. I asked to wait a sec so I could get my stuff. He said, "couldn't someone else take you home. How about the lead singer from Coldplay?!" The truth was the lead singer was there at church that day, but no one seemed to pay him much attention either because they didn't know him or because they thought they were better than he was. Back to the scenario; I said "FINE!" to my friend...who wasn't being much of a friend and seeing how mad he was about stuff happening at church he wasn't doing much to counteract the trend he so despised! I turned and headed back towards the sanctuary, for I hadn't caught up to my friend until he crossed the street. On the way back I noticed the outside of the building was a gas station with lots of people filling up their cars. I saw another guy from church sitting in his car. I literally flew across the street and waved to that guy while flying. When I landed I got a lot of disgusted looks for what seemed like me being white. I said hello and went back inside the sanctuary to grab my guitar, that still wasn't packed in its case. Upon entering the building one of the elders told me we had to get out soon and pointed to the group assembling behind us. I told him I still had to get my guitar so they'd have to let me in. I got back into the building and the guy who was in charge of the group function, just another lay-person from the church, stops me and says, "Hey we have this building until 4pm you gotta get moving!" I said "Look, I am getting my guitar." He says, "Take a chill-pill, goi!" When I got further in I realized it was a birthday party. They weren't going to let me in because of a birthday party?! Lame, I thought. It took me two seconds to get my guitar packed up and leave the place.