Listening for a change

A common theme today

Had a rough dream triggered either by high winds or snowplows, I think. The nukes were in flight, with distant detonations audible.

I woke my wife to watch as a giant rocket painted bright red was visible from our bedroom window, lifting off very slowly like that of a vehicle with a much larger payload.

In other words, the dream didn’t make much sense. But our mind finds a way for us to believe it.

Have you ever examined the feeling in dreams when you’re facing death (or when you’ve died?) In my case it’s a sense of resignation, and a desire to die well, or without regret. In the end it’s always a feeling of wanting to comfort and embrace family.

I don’t believe dreams necessarily foretell true events, but do believe they’re channels for important ideas and truths. (I also believe animals like crows can be signalers of change, just so you know what kind of guy you’re dealing with here.)

As an oversimplified example, a shaman can either listen for messages carried on the wind as a performative ritual for the betterment and even material “placebo” healing of his tribe, or he can actually learn a tangible skill by continually listening to the wind over a lifetime, learning to channel something the moderns don’t yet have a way to quantify. No way to say which one it is if you’re not the shaman, a little of both is probably most common.

In any case it’s less about trying desperately to “see” everything as a sign, which I find to be an unpleasant way to walk through life. Seems to me it’s more about attuning your mind and body to a world where God affirmatively exists; in this sense the metaphor of listening makes more sense.

More than ever, performative or not, I believe we need to listen.