I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must have made a mistake.
And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber-- give me a clue."

I loved this so much, I had to share it. :-)
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*"What a liberation to realize that the 'voice in my head' is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that."
~Eckhart Tolle*

My good friend Shannon and I were just talking about the heavy energy that seems to be going on not only in this country but around the world. She told me, "wherever I go these days, people seem to be so gloomy, sad, and frustrated". I couldn't have agreed more.

During the last couple of weeks I've been feeling a profound feeling of sadness, almost despair, but it comes in waves, it's not a steady feeling. What's interesting about this is the fact that I don't necessarily have more challenges than usual. As a matter of fact, things are actually looking up for me in every aspect of my life, so I know this pain is NOT personal. That's why I think I've been picking up on the collective energy of the country, or maybe even the world...

Those of you who did the online classes with Eckhart Tolle on "A New Earth" might remember that during the last class Eckhart was asked about dreams and ego. The question was, "do we have an ego while we're sleeping?". Eckhart responded that some dreams are simply dreams that process things that haven't been faced completely during the day. Also adding "there are other dreams that bring up different energies that can be pain body or ego coming into the dream... and the character that we represent in the dream is most likely an aspect of our ego." So, I decided to go over my dream journal to see how often my ego makes an appearance. I found an entry that made me laugh out loud:

I was at a Chinese restaurant, waiting for my take-out order. The place was empty, I was the only customer. When I looked down, I noticed that I was wearing the pajamas that I had gone to bed with (light-blue flannel PJs with teddy bears and balloons :-) Don't judge me, I got them on sale! LOL, oh... and I had bedhead too) :-). I was relieved to think that I was the only customer there, and that no one could see me looking so disarrayed. I was getting a little impatient because they were taking too long to get my take-out order ready. All of a sudden a bunch of people came into the restaurant, I recognized some of them. I was really embarrassed. I definitely didn't want them to see me looking like that. I tried to find a back door, but I was told that there were no back doors, so I had no choice but to walk out the front door. I was relieved to be out of there, but my relief turned into horror when I realized that there was a parade out on the street! LOL!

The absurdity of the situation should have made me realize that I was dreaming, but for some reason I didn't become lucid. When I woke up I was laughing so hard that I couldn't fall back asleep for awhile.

I can clearly see my ego throughout this particular dream (impatience, embarrassment).

I remember reading an article in which an expert lucid dreamer (who happens to be a deeply spiritual person) mentioned that she tries to be the kind of person that she is even in her dreams. She went on to recount a lucid dream in which she generously gave her blanket to a shivering man; but then she was "really disappointed" that he didn't compliment her aerobatics as she flew away! LOL.

I was asked to blog about dreams, so here it goes:

I used to dismiss dreams as simply a reflexion of our waking concerns; but I started to take them seriously after a life-changing experience. About two years ago I was going through a particularly challenging time. I was on the highest dose of a well-known anti-depressant, and still feeling miserable (I've been off anti-depressants for over a year now. I now understand that medications only treat the symptoms, they do NOT cure the cause).

I prayed for guidance, to no one in particular, I just begged for some kind of guidance. I got an answer to my prayers in a dream that night, but I didn't bother to analyze it, so it became a recurrent dream. I had the exact same dream for months. When I finally bothered to analyze it, I got the message. Ever since that day I have been paying closer attention to my dreams. Over the last 6 months or so, I've developed excellent dream recall simply by keeping a dream journal.

I was introduced to the wonderful world of lucid dreaming a few months ago, and I am simply amazed by it. I am still new to lucid dreaming, but knowing what I know now I strongly believe that it's a powerful tool for personal and spiritual development. Virtually every spiritual teacher, and every life coach will tell you that visualization is a powerful tool for manifesting your heart's desires. Just imagine not only visualizing but actually creating everything you ever wanted during a lucid dream. Yes, it's possible! I am not quite there yet, but I've been making steady progress.

The prospect of delivering positive messages to my subconscious mind while my (noisy) conscious mind is 'sound asleep' is beyond exciting to me. :-)

If you are interested in lucid dreaming, I highly recommend anything and everything by Stephen LaBerge.

I am currently reading "The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep". What an amazing book! I'm mesmerized by it. But it's definitely not for beginners. I probably should have learned more about lucid dreaming before buying this book (should have, could have, would have, oh well). If there are any expert lucid dreamers out there who could assist me along the way, I would greatly appreciate it. :-)