Hidden in a dream

I had a dream last night that I’m trying to decipher. I know some dreams are just that; dreams. But I really think this one was trying to speak to my heart.

Before I moved to this state, I had built my house “from scratch” (bear with the baking reference, I don’t know the first thing about construction, but talk to me about cakes and we are in business) I had the property, in a way, and I sat with the contractor and designed what was my dream house within my budget and space. Within a few months that house was built. I was able to choose every window, every tile, every appliance, and every color.

In my dream I was back at that house, but it looked very different from the real house that I lived in. It looked like I had just moved in, had a lot of boxes spreaded out and a few pieces of furniture.  I was happy in there because it was a canvas of many things I could do with the house. Looking out the window, I saw a neighbor, who is actually someone who was my neighbor at the real house, who told me she wanted to buy the house. I told her that I needed to consult with my mother ( just like in the real house, my house was built inside her property, so even though the house was mine, the land wasn’t ) My mother was hesitant to the idea, but we agreed to at least let her see the inside of the house.

As we walked through the house with her, I found perks that I had not seen before. I saw an old piano that just needed some painting, a collection of very cute elephants in gold, the house that in the real life had only two bedrooms keep growing on the inside, and all the sudden had four bedrooms and five bathrooms. The real house had only one. It had this huge kitchen. As I kept walking through the house showing my neighbor the selling points, I started discovering that I may not want to get rid of this house, that there was a lot in it that I had not seen that was of value in there and that I could do so much in that house; yes, with some money, patience and tender loving care.

In these last few days I had toyed with the idea of selling my current house, but I don’t think that this is what this dream was about at all.  I think this dream is speaking to me and the things that are going in my life at this moment. God is showing me how he’s cleaning my house, my spiritual house, and how many hidden gifts are there that I have not seen, not because their hidden, but because I have not taken the opportunity to look. That I should tour my house and see how many valuable things are there. That I’m in the right spot of being a brand new canvas, where HE can build a new life for me, a beautiful one. I thought I only had two rooms, he showed me all the other ones. To me that spoke about how much more love he can accommodate in me if I allow him. It speaks to how many more people can be accommodated in my heart to shelter. Just like in the dream, to get that house in shape is going to take money, patience and tender loving care; who better than God to provide it all if I just let him do his job and allow myself to shut up.

At the end of the dream I had a little boy  filled with dirt. I grabbed him by the hand and entered him into the shower to be cleansed. To me that’s a promise, that I will be holding in my heart.

God keeps reminding me to be still and know that he is God. I think at this point I know that he has a lot of things that he’s going to do with me, in this new canvas of my life. He has cleared my past and made me new. I need to learn how to crawl before I start running and I tend to forget that even when every time I run I end up hitting my head against the wall. Yes, I can be slow.

So I guess my thought about that dream is that I need to sit down, shut up and enjoy the journey of where God is trying to take me. He has promised to have a great future for me and I trust that, therefore no matter how hard things can look now, there’s nowhere to go from here but up.

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew

Tonight was the season finale of this show that shows some celebrities’ at the most vulnerable moments in their life while recovering from their addictions. I’m sure some of the audience of this show wants to know the intimate secrets of these famous people, others watch as part of the inspiration of their own recovery process regardless of their personal type of struggle. It’s at moments like this when you realize the blessing of the anonymity. I can’t even imagine how hard it is to face your greatest demons in front of a camera. These are real human beings with real struggles and in a way it’s very admirable that they have place themselves in the same position of being icons, but this time to show their strength through their weaknesses.

Before the final episode, they showed some of the episodes from the previous weeks. The episode “Family Weekend” showed the mother of Layne Staley, former lead singer of Alice in Chains who passed away due to drug use, giving a very moving speech to those in rehab. The part that moved me the most was when she said that the best life they could live was to live ordinary boring lives. It reminded me about a lot of the reflections I’ve been doing this week about enjoying the simple things in life.

It’s not a matter of not having aspirations; it’s a matter of not idolizing those aspirations and enjoy the journey towards our goals. Once again, stopping to smell the roses and enjoy the color in them, including the thorns. Yes, those painful experiences in our lives that come to teach us valuable lessons. Slow down the pace. LIVE! Life is not just the enjoyments and pleasure of the moment or our possessions. Life is every moment in our life, every minute, every second, every relationship, every tear, every breath, every heartbreaking moment and every smile. We only have one shot at this ride; let’s live the true meaning that our Creator intended for our lives!

Disclaimer: picture taken from VH1

A day of snow

Looking out the window today I was able to experience something that is not usual for me; we had some snow.  I grew in the Caribbean and I now live in the South.  Yes, we get a little here and there, but it’s not usually enough to stick on the ground. Today apparently we’re going to have more than enough. Many people are scared of the weather conditions, for me it’s a beautiful day. Everything is in the eye of the beholder, like all the events in lives. Yes it is cold, but cozy, it reminds me of how cold life can be out there and how blessed I am of having a warm place inside.  It makes me grateful for God’s provision of a roof over my head and warm clothes to wear in this weather. It reminds me to pray for those less fortunate that are suffering for whatever reason out in this weather.

Driving home through the snow showers was a beautiful thing to see. It was like being inside a capsule and looking at a postcard. It rarely seemed real. I kept thinking of this majestic scenery and all it represented. Once the snow it’s deposited on the ground it remains white until something alters it. It also reminds me of how our lives are in God until we allow sin to interrupt our lives.

A day like today is a reminder that even when we least expected things can change; sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but that regardless of the direction, our Maker is with us.  It reminds me that when we are in the middle of the unknown it’s time to drive through life slowly and careful to avoid slipping and crashing in the arms of danger.  It is the perfect time to see that no matter what’s going on in our lives, live itself is still breathtaking and amazing as we have the opportunity to see another one of God’s wonders and enjoy another day of life.

Be safe

Naty

Silent drops

a drop of pain inside the heart
is tended by the hand that feeds
words so sour, sharp and tart
cause the heart to endlessly bleed
 
told it can never be more than nothing
told that its progress is lost in meaninglessness
told that its existence was all for wasting
told that its being was never meant for this
 
a drop of pain inside the heart
planted by careless and selfish ones
a lifetime spent trying to put it apart
from a small hope that from the Creator comes
 
believes that everything it trusted was delusion
believes that care was just caprice
believes that discarding is the conclusion
of this life’s final puzzle piece
 
a drop of pain inside my heart
will never leave even with all my strength
trying to find my brand new start
seems like phantoms only gained
 
crying at the hopelessness
crying at the emptiness
crying for anything but this
crying unheard in this silence

 a drop of pain inside the heart
is  protected by the love that lives 
reaching for my brand new start
within the hope that the Creator gives

Amy

Silence

You are the mirror where I see all my blemishes

You are the obscurity that brings out the real me

You are the most sacred and the scariest

You are the place where I can connect with all divine

You are the place where I can’t hide

You are one of the most desired pleasures

You are where I can find the peace to my soul

Naty

Love

 

Love

the ethereal, vibrant wind that sweeps us into the bright color land

a place with neither time nor gravity

only us as one

Pain

the thick, sickening sludge that sucks us into a dark pool of unceasing torment

a place of weighted moments and days

We endure them alone.

You are my dove and I have seen your heart dragged

By the swinging pendulum of events

through love, through pain, through love and through pain.

You are in pain and I see you there, beyond the reach of my words, my affection

My whispers muted by the roar of your inner collapse.

I see your tears, so clear, like crystal jewels

Behind them is the abyss that knows no beauty.

You are imprisoned, burned and beaten, consumed

All I can do is look at you, you are so beautiful.

The mire does not taint you; the torment does not maim you

The affliction does not hide you; the wounds do not harm you.

This is what I see.

I won’t lose sight of you, dove.

I can’t forget the golden bliss, the tender delight

the soft, warm peace that promises to free you

and keep us in love’s comfort.

Amy

Gray

Today I’m grateful

 that I am not where I was yesterday,

and that I’m just a step away

 from where I will be tomorrow.

Today may look gray,

but remember that gray

It’s just a mixture of black and white,

just like we all are,

the dark in us,

the light in us.

So if the day has been gloomy and gray,

look for the ray of sunshine between the clouds,

 It’s the sun peaking out trying to reach out to you.

May the sun shine through the clouds in your life today!

Naty

Hello world!

Welcome to The Rising Muse.
We are a community of writers  in the pursue of inspiring our readers. As  we continue our  writing projects, those around us want to know more, what are we doing?, what is it about?  We wanted to have a place where we could share some of  our writing and our writing happenings for our readers and friends. Life is a journey, and we want to include all of you  in our writing  journey. Feedback is always welcome, let’s learn together how to be better by being inspired.

We also want this blog to be a place for inspiration, that place you go when you’re having a sucky day and need something to lift you up. We will try to create frequent postings for you to read and get your day going. (Read again, I said… we will try…LOL). We do have one condition for you our reader. If this blog or any of my writing touches your life in any way, you have to tell somebody else to come on board and join our rising muse community.

In the next few days we will be catching you up with our previous work, so that you can get to know us and see where our journey stands. From here, let’s  hop on the train and start the rising muse journey!!

Welcome aboard!

For today’s uplifting message:

I’ve been trying to read Psalm 69 all weekend. I just got to read the first three verses when  I got interrupted. For those familiar with the story of Job, who lost everything. He had many moments of crying out to God asking why things were happening to him. Psalm 69, to me, was one of David’s moment’s of frustration where everything that could go wrong did and you feel like you can’t hold on anymore. For the past couple of days I’ve had the image on an olive in my mind. To get pure virgin oil, the olive needs to be pressed and pressed. If you feel like Job or David…(or me), think of the olive and the greatness of that pure olive oil that God is trying to get from you.

Have a great day!

Naty