Notes From the Pathway of Wonder and Awe Dreaming Our Life into Being
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
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There is an old knowing that before you do something in your life you dream it first.
The stars glitter a little brighter as my gaze is drawn to the Southern Cross hanging majestically over the dark southern waters. I automatically follow the line through the stars to the celestial south pole. I can imagine the ocean of wonders beyond the horizon.
I heard someone say once that life is but a dream.
As I ponder this I am immersed in the magic and mystery of the night. I feel the comfort, the familiarity, of the Southern Ocean. My constant. The way I have known it since I first came to this land as a child and dreamed of living beside her. The pounding surf, the sense of enormity, of wild, of wonder. Of home. And always, the fresh cool air.
I look across the dark waters deepening into the night - the smell, the sea, the sound of the wind and surf. All the while I am supported by a sense of peace, of family asleep close by, dreaming under these heavens, beside this ocean. Scorpius glitters overhead, the long tail sweeping the southern sky, a sign of deep winter. The time of deep dreaming.
The wind begins to blow. Icy breath that skims and prances across the ocean from the South Pole. I look back at the chink of warm buttery light emanating through the trees from our kitchen window and remember the dream that came to me about living there.
I’d looked across the paddock and up to the house poised among giant trees, almost hidden from sight and thought, I could live there. I started to dream about it. One day the absentee owner was there. I noticed him starting to build a bonfire out the front. Without thinking about it, I approached him.
Hi, if you ever want to rent the house - or even sell it, let us know as we would be very interested.
He looked quite gruff and said, Oh no, no. I don’t want to rent it out.
OK, fine but let me know if you change your mind. And I left it at that.
A week later, he called,
‘I’ve thought about it and I am willing to rent you the house for 3 months.’
Thanks but no thanks, that’s simply not enough time, I responded.
How about 6 months?
I took a breath. It needs to be for at least 12 months to two years.
Otherwise it’s not worth it.
He agreed and within no time we were moving up to the house in the trees, on the side of the hill. We’d lived in this area for five years and had rented three houses - there are very few houses in the immediate area.
One day out of the blue, the landlord came to see us and said he was ready to sell us the house. I told him we would buy it in one year as by then we would have the money. I had no idea how this would happen but those words spontaneously came to me. And that was the next dream.
Twelve months to the day we were in a position to buy the house. I rang him immediately and put in our offer.
Our own house across from the ocean I had dreamed of living beside practically my whole life.
Over the past month we’ve explored the many ways we dream: through our nightly dreams, through imagination, contemplation and creativity, and through the dreams we hold for our lives. The more I have reflected on them, the more I have come to believe they are all part of the same current, drawing us into deeper relationship with ourselves, with Earth and with the mystery of life.
There is an old knowing that before you do something in your life you dream it first.
Some traditions speak of our soul dreaming our life into being before we are born. Others speak of Earth herself as dreaming, and that we are part of her dreaming. Dreams and dreaming are interwoven throughout our lives. It is one of the ways we enter into relationship with ourselves, with Earth, and with the unknown.
I take a deep breath of the fresh salty air. I feel deep peace. Peace enfolded within a wonder that never dims. The Southern Ocean with the stars shining above has never stopped being a source of wonder for me. When I am away, I dream about standing right here. And I feel grounded. I feel at home.
When I return home, as I just have, I feel that my deepest dreams are already happening. When I was five I saw the Southern Ocean for the first time and I was filled with wonder. I have never forgotten that moment. Decades later it is as clear and potent as it was then.
Wonder awakens the dream. It reveals what we love and where we belong. It gathers us so completely into the present moment that everything else falls away. What matters resounds in our heart.
There is no solving the mystery, only participation.
Every dream asks something of us: to pay attention, to imagine, to trust what resounds in our heart, and to take the next step into the unknown.
Dreaming is the current that flows between the known and the unknown, the seen and the unseen.
Before we finish, I’d like to leave you with an invitation.
This November is our first Earth and Spirit Australian Pilgrimage.
Together we’ll walk the wild Southern Ocean coastline, sleep beneath vast star-filled skies, listen to birdsong at dawn, share the landscape with the wildlife that call this place home, and immerse ourselves in a land that has inspired wonder in me since I was five years old.
Over seven days we’ll share stories, contemplation, the Ceremony of the Inner Journey, Earth rituals and time in nature, allowing the land itself to awaken the dream.
If wonder awakens the dream, I can think of no better place to experience it.
I would love to share it with you.
Much love
