A Dream, A Path, and "The Way"

It is hard to say how this started, and as one looks pastward, it is difficult to see where something ends and something else begins.

For me I will start with the most recent chapter, introducing a dear soul, Eliot. Eliot is the type to take life to the extreme, and as a true survivor will never overlook anything. With a bit of skepticism, I followed Eliot to his many wanderings, hopping from Qigong class, to Tai Chi, and attending religious ceremonies that offered energy healings and energy readings. When I headed to San Diego I was always aware of these things, but never gave them much weight. But as I saw Eliot believe that all ways were equally plausible when dealing with concepts beyond the scope of normal experience, and so gave all faiths that offered help and healing to those that suffered, I learned a bit about open-mindedness.

And with open mind, I attended a service in a community I didn't know existed. I recieved some energy healing and an angel reading. As far as I remember the psychic reading went something like this:

"Right now your life is spinning off balance, juggling too many things at once, and not doing any of them well. It is as if you are trying to do the Hula Hoop with so many rings that your going crazy. What you need to do is stop, and let the rings fall to the ground. And once you have stopped, look at the rings one by one and start again slowly and deliberately."

To which I thought, what the the hell does that mean? But that was soon to become a theme. Like a story I once understood, I began at the edge of the hole and decided to chase the rabbit. Maybe chase is the wrong word, more like stumble, trip, and eventually, enjoy falling down a hole.

After this image, the next day as it turns out, I had the great honor of being part of an experimental focus group. The focus was on a workshop designed on dreams, finding and encouraging their growth. In this group there was another man, two women, and the facilitator Keno. Now I knew about this group for a while, and so I thought about my dreams, and couldn't find much I wanted to do, frustrating me greatly. When I closed my eyes, only one vision was in my head, and it looks like this:

I am standing on the bow of my uncle's sailboat. It is one of those rare days when the sun shines and the wind blows a 12 or 15 knot wind. The kind of day when the boat gets moving, and you can feel the wind in your hair. With the sun also shining, you have a tendency to close your eyes. With the sun warming you and the wind blowing across your face, there is only one thing to do, smile.

At first this left me with only one dream, to sail the world, seeing oceans, feeling the wind, seeing the sun, and smelling the salt of the sea. But I thought it strange this was all that I wished for; to travel on an unknown path, carried about by the wind, with no fixed destination, living moment to moment.

As I listened to the dreams of the others in he group, who would soon become my friends, I became more disheartened. And it would take me a while to understand why.

The first to share his story, so personal I left his name out. He shared a life full of pain, a struggle against himself, but full of love and caring for those around him. His life of physical strain had exacted a toll on him that left his dream, to live one day without pain. Inspiring.

The second to share their dream was a beautiful young women, unfortunately considered middle-age by American obsession of youth. For her, life had turned in a different direction than she expected. Instead of following her passion of singing, she was amidst a divorce and raising a teenager. Amongst all this turmoil, her dream was to ignite her career and win a Grammy. Wow.

And so I felt a little embarrassed with my goal of sailing, because it was about as difficult to obtain as a drivers licence. The others were beautifully helpful and comapssionate, offering many options to follow my dream, but I was still thinking, "This is my dream, this what I want?"

And then I found the path. I ran into a friend, I hadn't seen in a number of weeks. Actually, I ran into him almost momentarily after his arrival to the Ideal. He spoke about a trip to India. A country I hadn't thought about since my friend had gone there, and found it as one finds a pile of burning garbage, seriously.

Kashif described his travel plans, involving the birthplace of Buddhist meditation, yoga and seemingly everything else popular these days that didn't come from China.

I said, "that sounds like fun!"
And Kashif said, "you should come."
And I said, "yes, it sounds intersting."

It took me a few days to realize the decision that I had made at that moment. To walk along a path and be carried by a breeze that I couldn't see.

After finding the path, I began to find joy in the simplicity of life. And so I began to laugh at how complicated life had been. And being opened up by the search for dreams, I saw a world that needed a little laughter, of he kind for no reason. The kind that ends with people wondering why it started on the first place and ending with everyone feeling better anyways.

And so I found "The Way" along the path that began with a dream. A way that carries me through one of the most remarkable periods of my life that I look forward to sharing with anyone, and if I get the chance, I would love to laugh about it too.