Xmas Recap 1- Seagullman Dream
Dec. 30th, 2004 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avadBack from Florida...from spending some sweet holiday time with the fam.
Each year I try to make a little something handmade...that I can pour some good energy into and distribute to the family. It has varied from micro-nailprayer pieces to ornaments to little books. This year I made ornaments again...this time inscribed with a mantra from a dream...and in order to explain a bit why, I wrote out the dream and printed it out on little scrolls to go in each bag along with the ornament...and pasted a black and white seagull onto the front of each bag. I started them at home but had to finish them in florida...setting up a workspace on my parent's kitchen table. It became a great bonding time with my dad too as I cajoled him into painting a bit with me into the wee hours(he's a wonderful artist and hasn't painted in Way Too Long). We had wine and listened to some Spanish music that we both knew almost by heart...and I shared with him verbally the dream I later wrote and printed for the gifts. Digging in his collage box he found a perfect seagull....intricately cut out of magazine paper...exactly what I had in mind for the front of the bags. The next day I copied it for each of the bags...
Each ornament has a blue sky on one side and a sunset sky on the other...
The text of the scroll is this:
SeagullMan and the Beauty of Life- A Dream
I had this dream in 1997 and I wrote it in my journal upon waking. I would like to share it with you this Christmas in hopes that it will inspire you as it did me.
In the dream, I am at a beach parking lot, standing outside the car with my co-worker and boss of the time. A seagull in flying overhead, and for some reason I start calling to it "Come HERE!! Come HERE, YOU!!" I am shouting loud, a little baffled at myself, but that is nothing compared to my surprise when it actually DOES 'come here'! It starts to descend...right towards me.
As it lands it becomes a man(!), smiling, grinning at me from ear to ear....absolutely BEAMING as he floats down the way a feather would...softly swaying back and forth on air...until he is laying quite gently on his back on the pavement in front of me with his arms behind his head, still grinning widely in this comically relaxed pose.
Stunned, I ask, "Who are You?"
to which he replies:
"I- am The Happiest Man on Earth."
He says this sincerely and confidently as if it is a formal title.
He goes on to explain that he must now pass on this gift,.....and that he is on his way to meet/visit some woman in another state. I say," SO it can be a WOMAN then?"
To which he grins still wider.
It seems I am being 'considered' for this 'position'...that is I qualify, prove myself somehow, I will be granted a 'vision'. Completely intrigued I ask him what this vision and all this happiness is ABOUT?!!?!
To which he replies slowly (while staring me so magically right in the eyes):
"THE- BEAUTY- OF- LIFE."
and immediately I woke.
Since that day, every time I see a seagull I hear a voice in my head reminding me of 'The Beauty of Life'.
Odd but Wonderful.
It always helps me to take stock of where I am and to take a moment to count my blessings....and to make an effort to be more awake to the beauty around me at any moment.
To further remind myself I have often written the words "The Beauty of Life" within artworks of mine, often in code, or repeated them over and over in a mantra-like way.
For this year's ornaments I have written the words out for you...in hopes that they and this story will bring blessings and reminders into your home. May we all awaken to and be grateful for the Beauty of Life every single day that we still have it.
With Love from me
Christmas 2004
Each year I try to make a little something handmade...that I can pour some good energy into and distribute to the family. It has varied from micro-nailprayer pieces to ornaments to little books. This year I made ornaments again...this time inscribed with a mantra from a dream...and in order to explain a bit why, I wrote out the dream and printed it out on little scrolls to go in each bag along with the ornament...and pasted a black and white seagull onto the front of each bag. I started them at home but had to finish them in florida...setting up a workspace on my parent's kitchen table. It became a great bonding time with my dad too as I cajoled him into painting a bit with me into the wee hours(he's a wonderful artist and hasn't painted in Way Too Long). We had wine and listened to some Spanish music that we both knew almost by heart...and I shared with him verbally the dream I later wrote and printed for the gifts. Digging in his collage box he found a perfect seagull....intricately cut out of magazine paper...exactly what I had in mind for the front of the bags. The next day I copied it for each of the bags...
Each ornament has a blue sky on one side and a sunset sky on the other...
The text of the scroll is this:
I had this dream in 1997 and I wrote it in my journal upon waking. I would like to share it with you this Christmas in hopes that it will inspire you as it did me.
In the dream, I am at a beach parking lot, standing outside the car with my co-worker and boss of the time. A seagull in flying overhead, and for some reason I start calling to it "Come HERE!! Come HERE, YOU!!" I am shouting loud, a little baffled at myself, but that is nothing compared to my surprise when it actually DOES 'come here'! It starts to descend...right towards me.
As it lands it becomes a man(!), smiling, grinning at me from ear to ear....absolutely BEAMING as he floats down the way a feather would...softly swaying back and forth on air...until he is laying quite gently on his back on the pavement in front of me with his arms behind his head, still grinning widely in this comically relaxed pose.
Stunned, I ask, "Who are You?"
to which he replies:
"I- am The Happiest Man on Earth."
He says this sincerely and confidently as if it is a formal title.
He goes on to explain that he must now pass on this gift,.....and that he is on his way to meet/visit some woman in another state. I say," SO it can be a WOMAN then?"
To which he grins still wider.
It seems I am being 'considered' for this 'position'...that is I qualify, prove myself somehow, I will be granted a 'vision'. Completely intrigued I ask him what this vision and all this happiness is ABOUT?!!?!
To which he replies slowly (while staring me so magically right in the eyes):
"THE- BEAUTY- OF- LIFE."
and immediately I woke.
Since that day, every time I see a seagull I hear a voice in my head reminding me of 'The Beauty of Life'.
Odd but Wonderful.
It always helps me to take stock of where I am and to take a moment to count my blessings....and to make an effort to be more awake to the beauty around me at any moment.
To further remind myself I have often written the words "The Beauty of Life" within artworks of mine, often in code, or repeated them over and over in a mantra-like way.
For this year's ornaments I have written the words out for you...in hopes that they and this story will bring blessings and reminders into your home. May we all awaken to and be grateful for the Beauty of Life every single day that we still have it.
With Love from me
Christmas 2004
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 10:26 am (UTC)reminds me a little of Jonathon Livingston Seagull, a book by Richard Bach written in the 60s about a special seagull with big dreams of flying faster for the love of it, teaching it to younger gulls, etc... or maybe it was about a guy on weird drugs. can't tell which. ;o)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:44 pm (UTC)Incidentally, did you ever read his other book 'Illusions'?
It's a short one...but really engaging...and i love the parable in the beginning.
PS- but you DID look me in the eyes, silly. Remember when I came by in my blue boots and you were amazed that I was so short??? hehe
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:39 pm (UTC)yep I read it already...as a little girl and then again when older...my dad had a copy1
(figures, no?)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:20 pm (UTC)have you ever read 'Illusions' by Bach also? Another favorite.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 03:29 pm (UTC)and I laugh and say "uh yeah, THAT would be exactly it." And we laugh at the weirdness.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 02:09 am (UTC)BTW I got Annie Dillard's book of poems 'Tickets for a Prayer Wheel' as one of my Christmas gifts. yay:)!!
*sigh* Dillard...
Happy New YEARRRRRR!!!!!
A toast to you, Van, my soulful friend with such an eye for beauty.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 11:35 pm (UTC)Did you catch my lake photos from several days ago? They are fixed.
Thanks very much, my dear. Have a wonderful 2005.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-02 08:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 02:07 am (UTC)Wouldn't that be fun? Well, I'll be down the road with a few friends if you feel like flying over!:)
And if I don't see ya- HAPPY NEW YEAR to one of my absolute favorite cybergals.:)! (big hug back)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-01 02:03 am (UTC)welcome.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-04 12:47 am (UTC)ps. i have pms and am very cranky and eating chocolate chips right out of the bag. please don't read my post, you'll make me erase it.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-04 08:56 am (UTC)love and hugs to the cranky one.:)