Gathering Self

Self

Self is filled with life.  Life is filled with all the attributes we seek.  Strength, vitality, healing, love, joy, freedom, they are all there in life and in self.  We can deliberately harvest these attributes.  But like the hunters and gathers that helped shape human kind we have to go out and look, hunt, pursue, and gather up what is there. 

Dreams

We go a hunting in our dreams.  That is our nature.  We hope.  We yearn.  We desire and we envision the fulfillment of our desire.  Dreams inspire.  Dreams gather up the yearning.  Dreams are expansive and help us reach out into the far reaches of imagination.  As children we did not hesitate to dream about the wildest things.  If we wanted to fly we dreamed up a way to do it.  If we wanted to ride a fast horse and do tricks in the saddle, we just dreamed up and way to have a horse, right then and there.  There was no waiting around for the horse.  You needed to ride immediately.  It was an urgent kind of feeling that had to be satisfied.  If you were having trouble finding what you needed you went to an older person for ideas and expertise.  My mother sewed capes for flying, found brooms for riding, and even showed me a trick or two to practice.  When I was older a carpenter who worked for my father helped me make bows and arrows, darts, rubber band guns, sling shots, flying saucers, and rope swings.  Dreams are essential.

Action

Dreams call for action.  Gathering up the materials for the dream is one thing.  But we must also gather up the internal things as well.  Determination to follow through.  Confidence to step into the dream with whole hearted belief and a good measure of faith.  Strength is needed for lugging stuff around.  Stamina is a good thing to have handy because sometimes the making of the dream takes all day, or all week.  My cousin and I once built an underground house.  We dug a deep hole, covered it with old barn doors and dirt.  We dug a tunnel entrance and and stocked it with blankets, cooking gear, water, tools for the trail.  Because the house was our hideout, where we returned from a hard day of riding horses and fighting off all the bad guys in that part of Kansas. It took three days to build.

Its good training, being a kid.  You do not hesitate just because the dream is outlandish.  People generally encourage and even help out when they can to make the dream come true.  As kids we round up everything we can that will fill out the dreamscape.  We gather up what we need and go from there. 

Resolve

Go a gathering.  Walk and talk to yourself about your dreams.  Find out what you need both externally and internally to make it happen.  Seek help, find expertise.  Don’t give up.  Most of all be resolved.  Be resolved to know yourself, inside and out.  Know what you want.  Know how you want to proceed.  Know how to step into the visioning process, and know how to follow through.  It will take all your resolve.  Especially in the healing process.  The need to heal often puts everything right on the line.  No more time for procrastination.  Now more time for dreaming and doing nothing about it.  No more time for piggy-backing your way along using the ideas and methods of others.  Life simply will not stand for it.  Life demands we know ourselves.  it is our greatest joy.  Knowing another is truly a wonderful thing.  But knowing self is essential.  There is nothing like the feeling of your own vision unfolding, your own abilities rising to the occasion.  Your own contribution being made.  Gather your strength.  Gather your self.