The Dreaming

In my dream I was in the balcony of a great theatre and a fire broke out in the stalls. Everyone rushed to the collapsing burning building. I calmly climbed down a remnant of untouched scaffolding and walked out the front unperturbed and alone into the waiting world. I am not surprised by this dream. Sometimes I feel this is where we are. Rather then recognising the greater reality and possibility all our focus, all our attention is on what is collapsing. And we are collapsing in the process. It is hard not to be drawn into the spectacle, given that for many what we know is contained in that fire. For me this process of burning started long before Corona however. Structures that serve a limited amount of people, and do not even serve the people who are within it. Yet we have a loyalty to it and that loyalty blinds us to the fact that the structure we are witnessing is but a blip of experience or the history of humanity. I am reminded of my pregnancy and subsequent birth of my son. It was hard, it was messy, it was scary at times… but that’s birth. All those things. I think so many of us have become so desensitised to life that our muscles are weak. This is both in the physical world in our overly automated societies wherein obesity is an epidemic (!!) to our inner world wherein the purpose and sense of connection and responsibility to ‘the Whole’ has been lost. Since my early life, and perhaps this is the natural state of a child, I have cultivated that sense of ‘Here’. To nurture a life in the moment that cultivates the soil I am in. To release ego, to bring a sense of balance and joy to my environment given my gifts. I fail often and this time is no less challenging then some in the past. On the other hand I think my experience of ‘making good’ has served me well in recognising what does not serve me. To that end I have largely come offline. I found my anxiety levels were going through the roof as posts streamed in related to ‘the crisis of our time’ or alternatively the over saturation of ‘creative content’ online. I get it. I have often used online media since it’s inception two decades ago in the development of my work. But often I found in these posts was not a sense of authenticity but more ‘I need TO DO something’. This buying into the consumer idea that without making someTHING we are noTHING. And that is simply not true. First of all we are not THINGS we are creative abundant multifaceted beings with infinite possibilities and gifts. And just TO BE, to spend time in silence, to observe and contemplate is a tremendous gift. A huge wonderful gift. I understand many are facing realtime challenges of survival. I understand that. In realtime. I have been there. So many times. Not now thankfully. Very exceptionally thankfully Jasper and I are secure in our practical situation. I offer you this, if you can. Take time to be empowered in some point in your day. Take a break from your stress and trauma to remind yourself what you CAN do. Dance was always what helped me. When I was able to move my body and put aside my financial and physical worries even for ten minutes I felt stronger and more capable of handling what was in front of me. And as my very wise great Uncle Jim McCool said to me once ‘everything will work out in hindsight do not forget to enjoy yourself in the meantime’. I know it’s exhausting. I know. And I offer love for that. For the rest of us who are muddling on, think on those people and how they are struggling not because of bad luck but because we have a world which means although full of abundance denies some the ability to care for themselves, and how we might re-vision a future where those things are better. I look forward to a time when we dance, and build this new future. When I designed the ‘Four Corners’ project it included the ‘Pollokshields Art Museum’, I explained that the origin of the word ‘museum’ is connected to the word ‘muse’ which means ‘a place for dreaming’. So let us all take time to build that museum in our everyday and dream a better world. *photo of girls at the Ambu Illam orphanage in Sri Lanka 2009 at the end of the war. Despite bombs heard in the distance we would celebrate and dance. Part of the FunForLife Project I was part of 2009-2011. We can all make good today. Lots and lots of love Kate E. xx