Sleeping In

Hibernation. Holing up. Going underground. These are all expressions of the wonderful skill many creatures practice in locations with seasonal stretches of hard cold environment. Times when survival is next to impossible.

They prepare a safe insulated sleeping place where their systems slow into a state somewhere beyond sleep but still this side of bodily existence.

When the surroundings are not supportive of life – these deft creatures simply detach until conditions change. Rather than struggle fruitlessly against environmental realities over which they have no power and from which there is no reasonable escape – they have a healthy instinct to wait it out as comfortably as possible.

I like to think they enter the consciousness of the quintessential state of boundless creation and renewal - the place of dreams

You don’t see skunks skulking around arguing with snow storms nor grizzly bears railing against rivers depleted of their bountiful fish by the circumstance of winter. Too, in drought prone dry places the critters there hunker down zoning out until more clement times return. I like to think they – and all the others – enter the consciousness of the quintessential state of boundless creation and renewal – the place of dreams. The total opposite of the struggle they might otherwise experience during the cyclical hard times.

If not the genius of the individual but the wisdom of her species ingrained well within her DNA, this propensity to ensure survival in this way inspires me to think more deeply about not just reaffirming and rejuvenatory qualities of dreams but their flat-out protective ones too.

Activities

1. Describe your perfect dreaming den:

• temperature
• sounds
• the qualities of the covers
• how dark (or light) is it
• time allowed to stay there
• what co-inhabitants are present
• what is the best way to be awakened
• which direction does the bed face
• are there views available to see and what are they

Yes think about your ideal situation for sleep geographically is that helps you get started – but then spend some thought highlighting what that perfect place has in the way of fundamental characteristics. So without the expense of a trip to, say, the South Pacific maybe you can create a more symbolically positive sleeping sanctuary for your regular nightly ‘hibernations’ mindfully assembling the most comforting accoutrement.

2. List some ways you might alter your own situation to help you recharge rather than be depleted this winter.

• comfy jammies
• cozy sheets
• fluffy pillows
• uplifting bedtime reading materials
• other bedtime rituals (hot toddy? nightly prayer?)
• soft light
• ambient sleep noises or music
• un-jarring ‘alarms’ (sound machines or programmable music settings)
• what do you look at when you awake – windows? Posters? Inspirational somethings? (quotes, shrine, photos, etc)

3. List Dream Topics you prefer to spend time with in your slumbers.

Creative Consideration

Sweet Dreams Pillow Case

1. You’ll need:

• plain, unpatterned pillowcase (you’ll get cleaner lines on an unwashed new one)
• fabric pens and/or paints (any permanent markers work too!)

2. Prepare a sketch of your ideas on a separate piece of paper. Write poems that inspire you, draw pictures of places you want to go or are love having already been. Inspired quotes are good, wishes are wonderful. Things you’re grateful for – these are all good topics.

3. Slip some newspaper or cardboard into the case so you don’t get accidental bleedthrough.

4. Have at it! If you start with painted outlines let those dry completely before coloring them in.

Sweet Dreams Pillow Insert

Let’s say you like the idea of the pillow case but don’t necessarily want the world (or that part of it you let into your bedroom) to see what you’ve done. cover your hand decorated pillow case with your regular patterned one. OR you can decorate a simple piece of plain material and tuck in between the case and the pillow.

Wind Horses

In northern Asia beyond the Himalayan mountains in a region known as ‘the roof of the world’  there are small pockets of people who have integrated their lives thoroughly with the bands of horses they have lived with for generations.

Their relationship with these plucky equines is one that is as balanced as nature itself in many ways.

Did I say idyllic? No I did not. I said balanced. While they celebrate their horses in many ways (festivals, song, stories) they also eat the surplus. These people’s lives are difficult. The horses’ lives are too. These aren’t mean people. They’re not wasteful. These are highly skilled, very practical survivors in an unforgiving climate. Survivors who are successful because they live with horses.

There are times, I’m sure sure, living in the harsh Mongolian Steppe, in the darkness of those long winters, in the depths of this ecosystem’s barren desolation when it seems all connection with hope has frozen closed.

What do these people who persist under these –what I would consider insanely difficult– circumstances choose to help them talk to (the) god(s)?

The Wind Horse

What we know as Tibetan prayer flags — these horsepeople know as the Wind Horses ; “lung ta“. The ones that adorn mountain tops, temple spires and any point between high to low where the breezes will find them. The ideas behind these are:

• they are flown from high to low to maximize their message transference
• as they move in the wind the messages upon them (typically written traditional prayers) are conveyed directly to the space around them transferring their messages of peace and goodwill to the whole vicinity and all beings within it – a very generous and hopeful practice indeed
• I think they’re horses, wind horses, because their intimate firsthand knowledge through living with them has shown these people that horses are strong, reliable, enduring, and dependable

Prayer Flags

The lives of the horsepeople is by many standards tough, nomadic, largely unmaterialistic, somewhat hand to mouth and inter-dependent with horses. We who romp with, bet on, play with and otherwise admire our sport horses, our pet horses, may take issue with folks who slaughter their weak or otherwise unserviceable horses and eat them. Then again, when’s the last time you slept with a horse or depended on one for your absolute survival? If, like me, you can’t say “last night” or “right now” then I don’t think we’re in a position to judge. I didn’t want to Disney-ize this amazing practice though. I wanted to present it in its raw realty for you. These aren’t sentimental, airy-fairy horse lovers like me. These are hard core horsepeople who have chosen Horse to carry not just the reality of their day to day continuation but also their highest hopes out to spiritual realms.

Creative Consideration

Make your own wind horse(s).

Materials:

• fiber (silk for purity – otherwise cotton or cotton/poly blend) cut to about 10″ x 12″ or some such – this does not need to be exact
• fabric pens or paints
• or Sharpie markers and/or watered down acrylic paints
• paint brush
• ribbon or string
• needle and thread or clothes pins

Sketch out what you want to transfer to the area you will be flying your wind horse. What prayers or hopes do you want the area to be infused with? Using words, poems, images or some combination of all decorate your flag. Sew or clip onto the ribbon or string and hang in an area you want to infuse with the message. By the way leave the edges on the material raw and unsewn. You want the thing to eventually unravel and fall apart – helps get the content distributed.

Colors and meaning ascribed:

• blue – sky, space
• white – air, wind
• red – fire
• green – water
• yellow – earth

Activity

Fly it. Place it anywhere you want the message upon it to infuse the surroundings. Indoors, outdoors, in your car, in the kitchen, the barn, next to the kids’ beds — wherever!

Discussion

So, what is the proper treatment of horses? Are there acceptable variations?

• stalls vs. steppes
• arenas vs. rocky slopes
• arbitrary groups vs family herds
• long pampered life vs rougher freer life

How might these extremes relate to your own choices in life?