Julie Dawn

The Point of Vanishing & Other Dreams

Blog


In my blog, I explore the themes that weave through my stories and dreams:

the need to belong, and the fear of loss; the longing for family and home and love; loneliness and the extraordinary power of the human spirit; depression - and hope; the clarifying presence of the natural world, and ways of being awake and alive in the only moment we really have: this one.

I hope you'll follow me beyond the storytelling, and join me on this very human journey....




MoonsilverTales

"Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." ~Oscar Wilde

‘I dream my paintings and then I paint my dreams’. ~Vincent Van Gogh

The following little creations are taken from recent dreams, rough hewn and unpolished, mined directly from the unconscious. They are the raw material for future Wishing Tree tales, and they are very, very short .

Friday 9 January 2015

On Being Kind

'Being Kind to Ourselves.'

It sounds so trite, and so self-indulgent. But the truth is, even the Dalai Lama has spoken and written extensively about the need for compassion towards ourselves first and foremost. Until we are kind to ourselves, we will not be able to sustain being kind to anyone else.

Why is this so hard?

I think because we have received messages for so long that it is self-centred and spoiling to be gentle with ourselves, to recognise our own inner beauty, to give ourselves patience, to stop mentally sentencing ourselves, that we never stop to question this. Our responses are so conditioned and unconscious that we are not even aware that we have a choice. And through our unawareness we strengthen the same false beliefs in everyone else around us.

Plus, many of us are taught that 'kindness' is something morally flaccid.  That being kind is something that should be hidden away, conducted in secret, lest somebody notice and call you weak.  And that's just being kind to somebody else.

I feel like shit today.  So I know that today I'm going to find this awareness particularly hard; I'm going to keep slipping into unconscious conditioned thought-patterns and I'm going to treat everyone else like shit as well. So maybe I can start by being gentle with myself about that. And not add a whole lot of judgement crap on top of the feeling-like-shit. That would be a good beginning.

Some days we just need to begin. And begin. And begin.

Susan Sontag:  'Kindness, kindness, kindness. I want to make a New Year's prayer, not a resolution. I'm praying for courage.'


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2 comments :

Unknown said...

damn machine has eaten my pretty words!
Julie your blog moves from strength to strength , this is a brilliant observation and so very very necessary in all womens life. We are never told as children how good we are doing , just told off when we do wrong.
The wisest people know that until we can feel the nobler emotions about and within ourselves we cannot be complete.
I cant speak for men but women find it very hard, due to the eons of self sacrificial teachings to put them first but it is so very very important.
Julie I am sorry you feel yuck, if only you could see yourself through others eyes dear one!
Some days we climb mountains and some days we get out of bed.

10 January 2015 at 07:24
juliedawndreams said...

I love that line: 'some days we climb mountains and some days we get out of bed' - so, so true. Thank you.

10 January 2015 at 15:55

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