Water Visions

An interesting fact has recently registered in my consciousness. Almost all my dreams, visual meditations, and visions have water as an element. I can only remember one dream that did not have water as an element.

It is not always the same vision of water, though some of the water settings do repeat. But water is there and oddly enough it is a reassuring aspect of these ventures.

Water may contribute to the story or it may simply be a backdrop. It is always in a natural setting, never in a container built by man. It may be placid, slow moving, rushing or tempest. It might even be mysterious, but never dangerous. Whatever the circumstances, it is there and somehow reassuring.

They say that water represents spirituality. I can see that possibility in some instances. But sometimes it seems expectant; as if it is waiting for something to happen. At other times it seems to leech negative emotions from my psyche and replace them with a soothing balm.

It is usually the first thing I notice. Do I unconsciously look for it and insert it if it’s not there?.. I have no answer.

In some cases water is not a constant throughout the sequence. It may start out being part of the sequence, but at some point I move away from it. I may return to it before the sequence is over, but I may not.

Does this have some meaning or is it my conscious mind looking for meaning where there is none? I am not a big fan of coincidence. I have often found that when something repeats there is something to look at, something I am supposed to see. It may take some time and require facing something that I’d prefer not to face, but I can usually make sense out of the repetition. I have not been able to with all this water.

So I wonder…Is this nothing more than a constant reminder that this is the water planet and that I am mostly water and all living things have water as a component of their existence and that bonds us all in, not only a cosmic way but, a literal way? The saying goes: “from dust to dust”, but that is not strictly true with humans and with many other creatures and plants. Humans are conceived in a very moist environment. When we transition, if left to its own devices our body’s moisture will return to the earth, then all that will be left of us is a small pile of dust. In between we need water to survive and cannot survive or thrive without it.

Or is it possible that this is some kind of psychic plea for help? Humans are sickening many of the waters of the world, destroying habitats and making waters unsafe to drink or even step in. We have piles of garbage floating in the oceans. Pesticides are poisoning our groundwater. All of this affects not only humans but all other creatures and plant life. Am I being shown what our waters could, should be like? Are we beginning to cross some fatal boundary from which we cannot recover? The water that I see in my dreams, visions and meditations is good. There are vibrant growing plants and living animals in and around it. Am I being shown what could be again or what is forever gone?

Is there a message? Is it spiritual or literal or both? I don’t know. But I wonder…

Alone

Some who are reading this may know that I volunteer for a hospice in my area. My current patient is in a very nice group home. There are a limited number of residents and generally at least three staff persons when I come to visit my very sweet patient. The common area, a great room, is very comfortable and inviting. There is a covered porch off the room and there are a half dozen or more rockers for sitting and soaking up the sun. The yard off the porch is nicely landscaped and soothing to the eye. I have been in a number of facilities over the last few years and this is one of the nicest that I have seen.

As I observed in my other blog, the residents spend a great deal of their time napping and, even when they are awake, they don’t do much interacting. I also noticed that interaction is between the staff and resident and that the residents do not have anything to do with each other. This disturbed and saddened me until this past week when it all came together for me.

This home, as nicely decorated and landscaped as it is, is a cross between a prison and a train station for the residents.

Given a choice, most of the residents would likely choose to be in their own homes or with their families, but instead they find themselves locked up in this “home”. I say “locked up” because they are, indeed, locked inside the facility. When I come to visit I am let in through two locked gates to get inside. Granted, this is a safety precaution to protect them as many do not necessarily know where they are and when they do move, they don’t have a clear destination or any idea how to get there. The locked gates keep them from wandering out and getting lost or hurt. Nevertheless…

These were once vital people who are now deemed to be a danger to themselves and others due to some loss in cognitive skills or inability to take care of themselves due to some physical malfunctions. They are now biding their time and waiting for their next move; their last move, hence the train station. Many of them have been diagnosed as having only a short time left.

Each of the residents knows that the person they are sitting next to today may not be there in the morning. There is no purpose to making friends who may not be around tomorrow. The loss tugs too strongly at one’s heart. The knowledge of this potential loss is such that they do not talk or even look at one another. The only constant to be counted on is the staff. So these are the people they talk to.

So, they spend most of everyday sitting by themselves, watching TV, reading or napping. Occasionally one of them will have a visitor for a short time. This is something to be cherished, but the visit is all too brief and then they are left behind in their velvet prison.

Yes. Now I understand why they do not talk to one another. It is why they do not make friends with one another. It is why, in a group of 12 – 20 people, they are alone.

What if

The other day while eating my lunch, I thought about how fortunate I am but how fragile that fortune is. I thought about the people who thought their futures were set and now those futures are shattered and I wondered…


What would I do if I had no roof over my head; no AC to cool me in these hot humid Houston summers; no electricity to run the AC and lights and refrigerator and computer and music and DVDs and heat my water and run my dish washer and cook my food. What would it be like not to shower and shampoo my hair each and every day? What would it be like to have no food? What would it be like to have only the clothes on my back? What would it be like to have no car nor any money to take a bus? What would it be like to have no idea where to turn for help and no one to help me figure out where to turn?

And I wondered…

What would it be like to have nothing but what I wore on my back and nowhere to turn for hope? What would it be like to have no hope?

And then…

A small voice in the core of my being said, “Those things you are wondering about are just things. But Hope. No one can take Hope from you but you. As for those other things, you did not bring them in with you and you cannot take them out, so what do they matter?”

Ah, I thought, the high road is all well and good for the pure energy we were and the pure energy to which we will return, but while we have taken on a corporal body it has requirements that we must address or suffer the consequences. The body must have fuel in order to work and thrive. It must have protection from the elements and temperature extremes. It must find ways to survive and thrive for the success of the species. Since we chose to enter this corporal being we have responsibilities to it that we must honor or we may find that we cannot complete the tasks that we came here to achieve. If enough of us choose not to honor these responsibilities of guardianship then the earth school may cease to become the great school that it is.

So the questions remain and I wonder: What if….

Musings Of An Eclectic Mind

Do you ever have a thought capture your mind and you just have to follow the thread of that thought to the end? I have, and I suspect many of you have, too.


These thoughts usually begin with an observation. Quite unexpectedly that observation connects with something I’ve observed previously and just filed away without any expectation of when I might need it, if ever.

Sometimes these threads lead me down interesting corridors leading to insights about myself. Sometimes they lead to insights about my place in the Universe. Sometimes, they lead to no particular conclusion and get filed away until some other stray thought causes them to come forward again.

Do these kinds of perusings happen to you? I suspect they do more often than most people will admit.

Curiously, these connections and insights occur most often when I am living in the moment; observing with disinterest, but not uninterested and not thinking about all the other things having a call on my time. I almost hear a click in my head as the connection takes place. When that happens I become quite still as the thread consumes my attention. I seem to step outside of myself and the situation as I continue to observe and connect and follow the thread of the original thought. When I follow the thread to its end I usually experience a moment of pure connection with the Universe. It is a powerful moment.

There are times when my attention is drawn to greater events around me and to peoples’ reactions to those events. They may contain a lesson for me, causing a shift in my perspective and perhaps my behavior. These occasions can be quite profound and enlightening.

Sometimes these events happen in clusters, sometimes they do not happen for periods of time, However, I have created this blog in order to record them when they occur and what my conclusions or lessons were.