Good Dreaming
How working for the whales has put the nightmares to bed
Nightmares were terrorizing my sleeping world.
Tidal waves. Acts of violence. All kinds of horrible things bothered my consciousness at night. This was a new experience. Dreams have always been my happy place, learning place, exploring place. some of my favorite stories have come through dreamtime.* And for years as I drifted off to sleep, I heard the songs of whales in my dreams.
So to have nightmares— not just one, but every single night— was disturbing.
I once heard you shouldn’t live in the place where you have bad dreams.
So I moved my bed.
But the nightmares stayed with me.
And then I moved my bed to a different room.
And the nightmares followed.
So when people ask me why I moved from Topanga, I tend to stammer and stutter. It’s hard to explain.
It was inconceivable to me how or why I would leave the land I loved. A home I treasured, a community I delighted in, the best landlords a girl could ask for, neighbors who became another family. But it had stopped being the place of where dreams come true.
Despite the timing, I didn’t leave because of the fires, or the inconvenience of living there that followed, I left because of the non stop nightmares.
(And for the record-- this is not commentary on Topanga-- it’s still a crown jewel on this planet in my humble opinion).
I mention this because we are the anniversary of the fires. Last time this year I was stranded in NYC, watching from afar. I was as consumed by it as anyone else, glued to the growing number of WhatsApp groups and telegram groups tracking the needs and how to meet them.
The impulse to get sucked into the healing and restoration of that place was undeniable. When I caught up with a mentor, he asked me why I hadn’t made any movement on finding an agent while in NY.
I looked at him like he was crazy. “The fires,” I said. ( I had jumped into community organizing mode and couldn’t do anything but stare at my phone— which was far easier than being present in NYC, a world away, where the topic was seen as more of a form of entertainment than the destruction of life, community, and livelihood).
And that’s when my mentor lectured me on not allowing the latest crisis to distract from the path.
And he was right– tending to the ashes in not my kuleana-- I had committed to a charted path with the whales and the water, invested 12 years in writing a big story, and when I diverged for too long-- everything in my consciousness was screaming -- through nightmares.
I share this because it is a bazaar foundation to the embodied current of knowing what it feels like to get back into the flow of life. To feel aligned-- even in a wack-a- doodle world.
Those nightmares were loud enough to not only wake me up,
but to inspire realignment with life.
Today I write you from my new home in Maui.
My dreaming world— has restored. Even while I hold my fair share of fear about the state of our world, my dreams have returned to technicolor, they have returned as teachers, it is as if I have returned to the dream of life.
Dear soul who is reading this... I share this because if you are seeking a place to restore your dreams, your hope, a place to listen deeply, to align with the waters of the world, to be held by the resonance of elder storytellers, and to find your own flow... you are invited to a global gathering of The Opening Ceremony of The Whale Dreaming Council.
.
It’s time with elders
scientists
artists
guardians
and old stories.
It’s a pause
to listen
to the whale guardians of this planet as we prepare for how to meet these times from a grounded state of flow and commitment to life.
In preparation for the The Whale Dreaming Council, I went to New Zealand to meet with Dr. Pauline Tangiora, who is known as the whale grandmother of the 13 grandmothers. She shared some of her stories with us, and her way of knowing whale as family. And then she said this:
“I know whales have protected me throughout my life.”
This idea of whales as guardians is woven into the threads of many stories around the world — and we look forward to creating a space for more of these stories to be known by you.
If you feel the call– my birthday wish (Yup! We are launching on my birthday!) is to share this with all of those who feel the call! We look forward to sharing this space with you:
When: Sunday, Jan 11th
Time: 9:00 AM HI / 11:00 AM PT / 2:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM GMT
*One of the dreams that came through dreamtime is WHEN WE WERE WHALES produced by Dana Walden.
And for paid subscribers (thank you!!), I am including another audio story that seeped through dreamtime and was caught to share with you.
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