day draw near
another one
do what you can.

–On Angels, Czeslaw Milosz

The title of the painting above– speak to me from everywhere– comes from a Rilke poem. It awakens the part of me, when I listen with my heart, that knows the slender threads. Robert Johnson, (the Jungian writer and storyteller) says the slender threads are always present:

(Slender threads) are the numinous forces that exist outside our conscious control– sometimes called fate, destiny, god, guardian angel, guiding hand or patron saint.

The slender threads are drowned out in the daily doing, but can be felt when we take the time to be with the inner world, the natural world, and stillness. He pointed out long ago (he's about 95!)– that loneliness is often the result of too much doing. When you feel lonely, it is often a sign to take time out and tend to the inner world of dreams, imagination, and listening to the voice of those slender threads.

This morning before dawn, the owl returned. I wrote this haiku:

Morning draws near–

a barn owl calls from the dark 

to one more sunrise.

How many sunrises have you seen? And how many millions have there been? Or billions? All of our ancestors have seen the same sun. 

When you look back on your life and take the time to see what is important to you, are there images, themes, or ideas that recur? 

Last week the subject was staying current with your dreaming self. I enjoyed hearing your responses to the line of poetry that came from my dream: she paid a dear price in lemons once. 

I played with the idea of the price we pay in lemons, in mistakes– and the gifts that come from our errors, from time. There is the possibility of a new perspective– a big view that alters how we see. I think this is what the title means: not to think so much about going somewhere, as becoming, becoming- not reaching to be more like someone else, but more like oneself. You do not go to heaven, you become it.

She paid a dear price in lemons once....

What is the thread that transcends chaos, failure, loss and death? Being a maker, creating, is a way of finding that coherence. There is so much time spent failing, experiencing loss and chaos. One thread for me is staying current with my dreaming life, with the night.