Monday, March 16, 2015

A Hut in My Heart


This has been an over-the-top year!  Work is magnified by a commute, a huge need for written curriculum and generous consulting opportunities.  I have had major family loss and multiple family illnesses that at times have left me gasping for air.  Through this I began to have a reoccurring dream…

In the dream I am in a hut by the ocean, sitting on the porch, overlooking the expanse of sea and listening to the lap, lap, lap of waves.  I sit in a beach chair, deeply breathing in salt air, feeling the heat of the sun as I rest in the shade, staring out at the expanse and listening to the repetitive silence of water meeting land.  Alone. 

I have shared this dream with friends and it has become a conversation piece of sorts.  My Cincinnati friend sends me photos of huts and asks me if she can live a couple of huts down from me and be my cabana girl. At a recent gathering another friend decided he wanted to build a hut for me in my home, complete with sand, a beach umbrella, clouds and blue, beach chairs and the sound of waves to lull me into peacefulness.  (I like this vision, but I don’t think I am going to kick my son out to realize itJ).  Another friend sent me a sign-up for luxurious vacations that features a hut on an exotic foreign island.

The hut continues to call me throughout this year.  As I volleyed words for my word of the year, which landed on “spaciousness”, the journey for a word quite honestly began with “hut”.  (I see the relation between both words.  Even though a hut is small and contained, it is surrounded by open space that is void of clutter.)  I was on retreat and built a vision board and smack-dab in the middle of the board I placed my hut.  

And the dream reoccurs.  

I think I will find a hut sometime this year.  A vacation place where I will tune out and tune into my heart that is calling me to this space in the first place.   The heart can’t live on vacations alone, though.  Until then, I am creating a mini hut-space every day.  For at least five minutes I travel through imagination and mindful meditation to that space of salt breezes, indigo skies and rippling waters.  There, in my heart hut, I rejuvenate, honoring the dream and my desire for spaciousness in a small and contained space.  Alone but not alone at all.




 Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for dedicating space and time for teachers and teachers of literacy to come together to share ideas, practice and life experience.



10 comments:

  1. I love this post. It made me laugh when I read about your friend asking to have a hut a couple of huts down from yours. Aren't recurring dreams fascinating? I love that yours is an escape. I helped a friend with a resume today. He's applying to work for Airbnb. What a great sites. Did you know they have a yurt in Malibu, California right now? Also an airstream trailer in a beautiful secluded spot in the mountains above Malibu. Maybe that's your getaway hut!

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  2. How does our brain know to keep dreaming the same dream? I hope you find your hut someday if that's how it's meant to be...

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  3. I think I know this dream - although my hut looks more like a white picket fence cottage. Yet the waves lap at my feet too as I read and write and find peace. It sounds to me like you need a trip to the ocean to rest your weary soul. It's a magical place for many - like me.

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  4. It seems you already know the message that this dream is sending you. Your words describe it beautifully. And taking a bit of time every day to focus on that small contained space within the spaciousness of the sea is a great way to honor the message. You have had a rough year...leaving you gasping for air. Your mind and body are taking care of you with this dream...so glad you have paid attention to it.

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  5. This dream is whispering in your mind and as it reoccurs you pay attention. I love the idea of your heart hut every day. We all deserve some time to visit a place in our mind.

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  6. I love that you are building a metaphorical hut in your life, dreaming into the real one someday. Good thought!

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  7. "in my heart hut"

    Oh, this is both a humble and grand metaphor for living our lives. I, too, would love to be your neighbor, Deb!

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  8. How beautiful that you get to escape from you chaotic life to the hut of your dreams it only in your mind. I hope you get to take yourself their someday soon. Thank you for taking me with you through your slice!

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  9. How beautiful that you get to escape from you chaotic life to the hut of your dreams it only in your mind. I hope you get to take yourself their someday soon. Thank you for taking me with you through your slice!

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  10. "Alone but not alone at all." Love this line. That's how I feel reading about your hut. I make your hut my hut. I feel the peace of my own space. Then, I feel the connection to you as I always do in your words--sort of the joining of the threads of teacher humanity and just plain ol' humanity. Struggling to find peace, to find the quiet, to seek the solicitude, to stay grounded, to seek what I need. Yep, I loved today's blog. I love the idea of the sandy hut in your home--that's a laugh. I could imagine how annoying the sand would get. A hut of the mind. Yes. Alone but not alone. LOVE! I, too, wouldn't mind a neighboring hut.

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