Dreaming

Much of my life is dedicated to doing, to producing some sort of product for or response in my students. I forget about the essence of dreaming.

There is a quality to being able to dream that enhances everything else that I do. Taking the time to encourage that voice inside of me that gives me counsel is one of the healthiest things I do. It's easy to cut it off and say, "Forget it! You take too much time, too much quiet, too much space!"

Looking at the picture, I flow into that elusive dream state. There's a fairy ... and if you look closely at her hand, she's consoling a dragon. What an incredible beginning to a storyline ~ to a dreamscape!  Dreaming nurtures my creativity. It moves me from today into tomorrow. I brings yesterday into focus. It's the place and the space where I can get closer to the heart of who I am ~ and let her shine!

What do you do with dreams? How does dreaming affect your life? How do you define a dream?

A Hole in the Crown of the Sun

From the NASA website: Coronal holes are dark, low density regions of the sun's outermost atmosphere containing little solar material and having lower temperatures. A typical feature on the sun, they are important to our understanding of space weather.

Looking at this image, taken on July 18th, I 'see' one of the 12-pound bowling balls from our local bowling alley ~ except this image has a halo around it! Even though it's labeled a 'hole', that dark spot on the north pole of the sun only emphasizes the intensity and beauty of our star. There are bright spots visible ~ solar flares, maybe? ~ and an overall sheen giving it another dimension of wonder. Surrounding the sun is the inky blackness of space ~ certainly different from the view of the sun from my perspective on earth!

The coronal hole ~ a hole in the crown or the aura surrounding the sun ~ what a concept! The north pole of the sun equates to where the crown of our heads would be. This hole makes me wonder: What kind of 'thought' goes through the 'mind' of the sun? How heavy is the thinking and imagining of our star? I perceive this hole as the sun opening itself to us, seeking to communicate beyond the glow. I hope we can hear what it says!

Look at this image for 30-90 seconds without distraction What do you see? What do you feel or experience as you look at it? What do your other senses tell you? Are there any words that come into your mind?

The Day the Earth Smiled ~~ View from Saturn

On July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn's rings with Earth and its moon in the same frame. Earth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at the center right; the moon is a fainter protrusion off its right side. The other bright dots nearby are stars. Of 323 images, this is the only one that has the Earth-moon system in it.

Imagine that! This is the stuff science fiction stories are made of! Look at that image ~ and the arrow pointing to the itty bitty dot that is us. We look around our world and perceive ourselves as big and important. We create wars to prove who can be more impressive. In the vastness of the Universe, just how much do we matter?

Yet on this little dot of a planet, all our strutting and showmanship matters because this little dot is where we live and have our being. What emotions are stirred up by this image? Moving forward from today, what will you do differently because of them?