Awake or Asleep

The beauty of this day awakens within me. The ocean tides in my eyes wash over my cheeks with the surprise glimpse of the elegance of the blue from which the sun arises, spilling its kisses onto the shimmering moss-filled branches in my back yard. I arise into the practice of the day, which calls me through its contours, finally, into the night.

I spend little time sleeping even though the night of sleep and dream is the other favorite part of my day. There is that small window of time between the night and the day that is so liminally inviting; the practice of the night calling me into the day and the practice of the day calling me into the night.

Lying in impending slumber I am aware of the gradual decreasing of my bodily rhythms. I witness a lightness of mind and a deepening of the heaviness of my body; the room lights up through closed eyelids and feelings of love course through every cell in my body. In time the body fades away. A dream eventually arises in my field of sight. As I watch it, fully alert, I feel no need to alter it in any way. This incarnated fleshy soul relaxes more deeply as the lucidity drifts away and on this night, for a while outside of time, there is nothing but Awareness.

A wispy dream begins to formulate as this borrowed body begins to arise into the consciousness of the morning practice. This lucid dream becomes so enlivening that even though Awareness knows it’s a dream, it is as real as a boulder in a stream. I have to ask myself, “Am I really dreaming, or am I actually awake”?

This is a prophetic dream. I just watch with ease and delight. I feel my body senses awakening as my dreamy state becomes diffused and wispy. Awareness of my soul infused body arises in full bloom. I sit up on the bed, and feet touch the floor like every other morning, but Awareness has something else in mind this morning. Awareness remains watching Itself dream as I stand shaking the sleepiness out of my eyes. I shudder with disorientation. Am I awake, or am I asleep and still dreaming?

Terri O'Fallon