Making good Mondays is like making coffee -


The week is before us - like the coffee pot - waiting to brew. Making it good is a matter of choice, luck, creativity, patience and acceptance of the outcome.

Currently at Making Good Mondays

Active elements on this page: Occasionally I will publish a new blog post, but I write mostly at other sites.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

"It is a puzzlement"


Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell



One of my favorite musicals, "The King and I," has a wonderful song entitled, "The Puzzlement." It popped into my mind when I saw this post's illustration, a brain teaser in my collection of <mess with your head>. I love the word and I love the story of the teacher and the King of Siam.
The line between fantasy and reality is often blurred in our minds. That is confusing for us. What is real; what is imagined? How do we know where to draw the line between actuality and illusion?
Dreams are this way. They are "puzzlements." As we are having dreams, it seems as if we are really there. It is as if the setting and props exists, the characters move and talk, the plot moves forward.
Dreams are gifts from our own internal "Dream Makers." Constructed from symbolic imagery and language, dreams have several purposes:


  • Integrate disparate bits of emotionally engaging memory of what happens to us within the previous day or two
  • Help us resolve internal conflicts
  • Give us health/illness information about our bodies
  • Solve problems or invent and create
  • Work through trauma memories
  • Give us in fantasy what we cannot experience in reality
  • Remind us of our own internal wisdom

Remembering dreams can be challenging, but writing them down immediately upon awakening can often help. With practice and becoming familiar with your own internal dream "language," you can interpret your own dreams and solve all these wonderful and scary "puzzlements."
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The topical post today at South by Southwest is about the US ship of state.

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References on Spirituality -- Favorites from my old collection

  • "A Return To Love: Reflections On the Principles Of a Course In Miracles" by Marianne Williamson. Harper Collins, 1992
  • "A World Waiting To Be Born: Civility Rediscovered" by M. Scott Peck. Simon and Schuster, 1993
  • "Chicken Soup For the Unsinkable Soul" by Canfield, Hansen and McNamara. Health Communications, 1999
  • "Compassion in Action: Setting Out On the Path of Service" by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush. Bell Tower Pub., 1992
  • "Creative Visualization" by Shakti Gawain. MIF Books, 1978
  • "Finding Values That Work: The Search For Fulfillment" by Brian O'Connell. Walker & Co., 1978
  • "Fire in the Soul" by Joan Borysenko. Warner Books, 1993
  • "Further Along the Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck. Simon and Schuster, 1993
  • "Guilt Is the Teacher, Love Is the Lesson" by Joan Borysenko. Warner Books, 1990
  • "Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways To Regain Peace and Nourish the Soul" by Elaine St. James. Hyperion, 1995
  • "Insearch:Psychology and Religion" by James Hillman. Spring Pub. 1994
  • "Man's Search For Himself" by Rollo May. Signet Books, 1953
  • "Mythologies" by William Butler Yeats. Macmillan, 1959
  • "Myths, Dreams and Religion" by Joseph Campbell. Spring Pub. 1988
  • "Passion for Life: Psychology and the Human Spirit" by John and Muriel James. Penguin Books, 1991
  • "Peace Is Every Step" by Thich Nhat Hahn. Bantam Books , 1991
  • "The Heroine's Journey" by Mureen Murdock. Random House, 1990
  • "The Hope For Healing Human Evil" by M. Scott Peck. Simon and Schuster, 1983
  • "The House of Belonging" poems by David Whyte. Many Rivers Press, 2004
  • "The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" by M.Scott Peck. Simon and Schuster, 1978
  • "The Soul's Code: In Search Of Character and Calling" by James Hillman. Random House, 1996
  • "The World Treasury of Modern Religious Thought" by Jaroslav Pelikan. Little, Brown & Co., 1990
  • "Unconditional Life" by Deepak Chopra. Bantam Books, 1992
  • "Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation" by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Hyperion, 1994
  • "Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice" by Thich Nhat Hahn. Doubleday Dell Pub. Group, 1974

About Me

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A retired counselor, I am equal parts Techie and Artist. I am a Democrat who came to the Southwest to attend college. I married, had kids and have lived here all my adult life.