A Dreamer's Chronicle of Light 🎇🎄
From checkpoints to crepuscular rays - embracing the unpredictable journey.... and a Merry Christmas and Happy Hogmanay 🎇🎄
Dear Honest Men and Bonnie Lassies,
Herein, for you lovely wonderful people, I share some fairly wild “dream-and-post-dream-ponderings”1 from last night; the high-level Value Life (VL) plan for 2024; and some Christmas and Hogmanay well-wishing.
Certain ongoing aspects connected to my immigration (that was mentioned in this recent VL Substack post) were / are creating strain. When your brain and body are fatigued and issues are not able to be resolved or progressed, even regressing, with the exerted energy, it could be frustrating without the correct attitude (thanks Dad for instilling this wisdom when I was a bairn [Scots: child]).
Even with a positive attitude though, big mindful sighs, recognising and "being with" your thoughts and feelings, watching and letting them go, it can still be stressful - and that is ok too - my feelings are valid 😁 so are yours by the way 😉
I am pleased to have maintained my manners when dealing with people also chained to systems with flawed architecture and will not neglect to mention, that without applying mindful techniques, mibbe ah’d huv ripped oot mare locks n’wid huv’a baldy heid [Scots: maybe I would’ve ripped out more locks and would have a baldy head]!
That said, I was pertinently reminded recently (by content in the Waking Up app (free trial)) that it is highly likely that someone somewhere would trade places with you in a heartbeat.
(I will not detail general personal living sh17 here - you’re welcome 😘 - I did enough chatter-spewing in the VL mini-series 😅)
Coupling physical and mental challenges can oft-times lead to deep nest2 and produce some wild imagery.
Later in the evening, being well fed, feeling lucky and loved, with the utmost gratitude, nest-time in a comfy bed was embraced.
And then it got dark.
Dreamtime
One of my (truly wonderful legendary) Aunts was at the wheel of a huge vehicle with my family in the back approaching a checkpoint3 of sorts. My Aunt is known in our family for having “unique” driving skills. We got turned away from the checkpoint and (some, given the driver, would be incredulous that) I relaxed with the thought of love and trust for this Aunt and… with her awesome nature singing out, she calmly nailed the maneuver safely and smoothly and with aplomb.(.. if I didn’t know I was in dream 😜😅😘🥰…)
Briongloidcraic-tiomaint4!!!!!
We arrive at a beautiful sandy beach with a golden-deep-orange sun setting rapidly over a multi-coloured horizon with beautiful, scantily-clad people playing a great game of beach-volleyball.
The soft, stunning sun was gently obscured, outlined by some small wispy clouds and a copse of palm-looking-trees which facilitated my directly taking in the pleasantly spectacular crepuscular rays5.
Drawn to the sun like a moth to flame - it flickered. The tree branches swayed in the cool breeze.
No. Pretense.
Again, the sun actually winked, pure-black and the frames of time blinked.
Volleyballs dropped and heads turned.
Strolling with purpose, gaze fixed, again, the bright ball blaze flickered off-on-off like a dying ember.
On… warmth, caressing the retina - only a toaty-time-step.
Shuddering, irrefutable, staggeringly strobey flashes for a wee frozen second [transitional context, the rapid fire sound that wasn’t:] … Žaa-žaa-žaa-ža-ža-ža-žžž - oo-auumm-fphshhhh…
Deep, coal-dark nothingness.
Briongloidcraic-tiomaint (refer to footnote 4 again)!!!!!
Supine, feeling the soft benign sand beneath my body, I arose, checked by blinking that my blinkin’ eyes were open - and aye, it was pitch-black.
My hand I could not see and I turned in utter blindness, sun gone, my fire not yet extinguished as I stomped off to find my stars, my family…
I awoke in familiar, not-quite-complete-darkness(, in a sodden t-shirt) with a renewed hefty appreciation for light.
A Pondering
What the actual fu(uuuh)…lly functioning crazy-mental sub-conscious?! I wonder what a Jungian analyst would make of it 🤔 If I have the time and courage I may submit6 to This Jungian Life podcast - for anyone interested, they cover wide ranging psychological topics and offer dream interpretations.
Upon reflection, if one can remember the most important things even when the sun dies, it could be argued that it is a victory over darkness. I note that darkness is not an “evil” enemy either, but rather a fine player in the game.
For some time, I have had a regular exercise - so long as I remember to undertake(!) - to be mindful and thankful for the magic of light (and darkness to a lesser extent). Alas, I very often forget, but mibbe I should stop this practice altogether so the GA or the dream fairies don't have more ammunition to try and frighten the life out me 😅
I will leave it up to you to think about light’s profundity or even acknowledging the somewhat infinite ineffable magic of light. Do you largely take it for granted too?
The Christmas period is a time of light in dark times, for sharing love and laughter.
Kicking about with my Muslim brother the other day, he asked what was in the big carrier bag I had. I said, "How would you say?... It is my big sign in lights, that says, "I am a pagan-heathen-b@stard!"" He was perplexed, so I told him, "it's ma Christmas tree" - a gid [Scots: good] laugh ensued.
We all share the same light. Externally its undeniable, but whether one thinks it’s the same light within, it may matter, and it may not.
Sometimes words can lack suitable expressive connotations, so please pardon the profanity upfront and endeavour to revel in joy, bathe in the external light and share your loving, sparkly virtuous internal light, as it is all f*<king beautiful! You never know when it will go out!
Memento mori7!
The (Very High-level) VL Plan for 2024
Moving on and if one is interested, the high-level VL plan8 for 2024 is as follows:
Keep producing (thanks to another brother for the recent chat and encouragement! Super-big-love!)
Finalise the VL mini-series text and get it produced.
Draft communications to engage a fairly sizable list of (not-not-potential-)stakeholders, beautiful people and organisations by leveraging the VL mini-series finale's content (and Mission9) to, inshallah (Arabic:God-willing) discuss the content and ideally agree to embark on the Journey / Shindig10 (more on this to come at a later date).
Fortunately, there are individuals who, in my perception, appear to be informally engaging in the / their Journey or Shindig already. It's probable that anyone reading this is also participating to some degree. Inshallah they will want to make it official. Then maybe, in this world where trust is severely lacking, a "big influencer " or politician (or two…) 🙏 will see the value in committing to living their truth, start sharing symbols of trust backed by allegory and see virtuous actions realise expansive benefits (VL Substack post).
Again, as per the VL Mini-series Finale Part 1, I endeavour to remain unattached to the outcome and to ride the wu-wei(ves) (Wikipedia, but the concept was also previously mentioned in this VL sub-stack post) 😊
Christmas and Hogmanay Well Wishing
I hope you and family have a have a stonking, toot-and-honking🤨🤔, prime-time, light and love filled, joyous Christmas11!!
Awakening from the dream, lest the darkness ensues, I had the urge to request of everyone to please check in with family, make sure they are safe, feel the love and have a laugh these festivities.
Memento mori (again, please see footnote 7)!
Happy Hogmanay when it comes too! All the very best to you and yours for a sparkling 2024 - lang may yer lum reek!
Big love 🎇🎄
P.S. Peace, happiness and hugs to any and all that may be wishing to change places with anyone - especially when individuals may be leveraging their influence to assert control, gratify their egos, infringe on others personal space or encroach on ones “righteous” values. May better times ensue by trusting in and riding the wu-wei-ves.
💙💛🙏💙💛
I thought there might be a term for this. Freud, Jung et al. that mob produced some cool and wacky stuff, but I could not find terminology and so, here is a neologism for it: briongloidcraic ("Bree-on-gloid-craic") stemming from the gaelic words dream and banter 😊🥰
Nest: a colloquialism where the word can be used (, I think,) as a verb, noun and adjective and in association with aspects relating to sleep(ing) and / or (going to) bed.
Shakespeare contributed hundreds of new words and phrases (and prefixes like “un”) to the English language, like “the world is my oyster”, “break the ice”, “sanctimonious”, “frugal” (probably describing Scot’s - the pr1<k 😉😘) and countless others, including “countless”. I am certainly not comparing myself to this literary genius, but I am up for nudging cultural evolution along and chiming in to enhance (? 🤞) humanity’s common psychotechnology.
Military personnel welcome me every day that I commute to work when I go through a type of checkpoint.
As a side note, from what very little I have read (primarily the book Vision or Mirage (Amazon.com)) or watched, post 9/11 the Saudi authorities and general public contributed to the outstanding successes, all things considered, countering terrorism and that is continuing through various initiatives to this day. (Not that this messaging could not change rapidly from leaders if it suited interests, just like, I may add, agendas have been pushed by “the West” in the past and continue to be.)
High-level American officials realised the Saudi governmental and religious authorities were a critical ally in the area combatting those waging Jihad (Arabic: Holy War), physically and spiritually and this came at a severe cost to many of their people. This is a complex multi-facetted topic out with the scope of this post.
Respect, an openness to understanding and dialogue can foster acceptance and promotion of common utilitarian values. Some of which, I think, the majority of people in “the West” and Islamic cultures seek to cultivate and advance are truth, charity and love - not a bad foundation to build on and unite humanity.
American / Saudi respective law and order systems be as they may, I am not sure, if I migrated to America, that I would feel as safe as I do in their cities. (A wee reminder and as per VL mini-series ep01 (YouTube), please remember to always engage critical thinking when digesting content. 😉😘💙)
Further to footnote 1, this additional neologism: Briongloidcraic-tiomaint (“Bree-on-gloid-craic-chom-ent”), combines Gaelic terms "briongloid" (dream), "craic" (banter), and "tiomaint" (drive) to blend “dream-banter” with a driving force, to emphasise a dynamic or instant, changing of place / nature of dream imagery.
I have been trying to do this every morning as Andrew Huberman (YouTube (6mins)) says it’s the best thing for a good sleep.
I have a fair few dreams in the bank I wouldn’t mind approaching them with for their briongloidcraic ⏱-permitting.
A Latin phrase serving as a reminder of the inevitability of death.
Some philosophical teachings (e.g. Zen / stoicism) encourages practitioners to contemplate impermanence which is not meant to be morbid, but an invitation to mindfully appreciate the present moment and harness enquiry into the nature of existence.
Increased resilience and inner strength can apparently be achieved too by rationally acknowledging the uncontrollable nature of external events (which reminded me of my wild experience with this 20min breathwork practice (YouTube), completely switching my unreservedly “un-wu-wei” mentality one morning earlier this week. And I’ve been loving BreathewithSandy (YouTube) and will definitely be joining his Patreon soon inshallah.)
There is much on the cards. I have even officially started engagement with my employer. I have many a note / leads I would like to explore and a lot of chat about this for anyone interested.
As a wee reminder 😘, part of VL’s mission statement is to: facilitate causes to unite humanity and leave a safer, cleaner and epic heritage for the children and posterity. The intent is to create an initiative to unite humanity under a banner of trust and celebrate commonality and inspirations. The VL mini-series finale will elucidate inshallah (they love “inshallah” here (you may be able to tell - it’s catchy)).
And who do you think is on “the list of (not-not-potential-)stakeholders” concerning humanity?
Please refer to VL Mini-series Finale Part 1 (VL Substack post) for terminology.
Or however one spends this time.