Dream On

Haiku My Heart

October 12, 2012

Haiku My Heart is a weekly exercise on Friday. We gather and speak to each other with our minds and hearts, sharing the fabric of life through words, art, photographs and pleasant greetings. Join us at Rebecca's recuerda mi corazon.

Catching energy

Snatching it out of thin air

Saving the good stuff

Expecting pleasant

Thoughts, messages to appear

The bad sent away

Bold round energy

Keeping some, some discarded

Accepting my fate

Still expecting dreams

Confident that they will be

A gift in my life

Dream Catchers, Dream Nets, Spider Nets. These woven strainers, adorned with beads, feathers and leather, made of wooden hoops and sinew, are to allow the dreams that are sent our way to be filtered. The  good mojo passes right through to your soul, the bad gets held in the web.

There are stories that explain it. Here in the upper Midwest where I live, there are two dominant cultures, Dakota and Ojibwe. Each has a story about what a Dream Catcher might be and how they originated. Both are similar. This one is about the Lakota and their idea and an excerpt taken from a site namedDream-Catchers.org

An old Lakota Elder and Spiritual Leader was high on a mountain and had a vision. In this vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him, and as he spoke, he picked up the Elder’s hoop of willow, which was decorated with feathers horsehair, beads and other offerings, and began to spin a web.

He spoke to the Elder about the cycles of life, how we begin our lives as Infants, move on through Childhood and on to Adulthood. Finally, we go to old age, where we must be taken care of as Infants, completing the cycle.

Iktomi said, as he continued to spin his web, “In each time of life there are many forces, some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction, but if you listen to the bad forces, they’ll steer you in the wrong direction and may hurt you. These forces can help or interfere with the harmony of Nature.”

As the Spider spoke, he continued to weave his web. When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the Elder his web and said, “The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, making good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will filter your good ideas and the bad ones will be trapped and will not pass.”

The Elder passed this vision onto his people. Now, many people have a Dream Catcher hanging over their bed. The good will pass through the hole in the center to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams are captured in the web where they perish in the light of the morning sun. It is said that the Dream Catcher holds the destiny of the future.

The elder passed this vision on to the people and now, many Indian people have a Dream Catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good will pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams is captured in the web, where they perish in the light of the morning sun. It is said the dreamcatcher holds the destiny of the future.

I like this story. It’s not such a matter of believing every word of it to be true, but rather the idea, the essence, is true, that there are forces of good and evil and they have to come from somewhere. Why not in your dreams? And then, why not try to filter this energy as it passes near to us? Why not attempt to protect ourselves from the evil. Why not seek the good?

And since life has it’s ups and downs, ins and outs and is not really totally rounded out evenly for every person, then the circle may not be perfect.

This is my interpretation. When I am influenced to weave a Dream Catcher, I see life this way and see the circles, or rather enclosures, are like our lives. No two are the same and all have their own unique twists and turns, but eventually do complete this cycle of life.

My Haiku today are a reflection of the Spirit in which I discover what twists and turns have been in my own life, and how the journey gets side tracked and moved off course at times. Then again, “off course” is the course. It isn’t off then, is it? And what is good and what is bad, and why do we judge what happens in life and put a label on any event? 

A lot to think about. The Dream Catcher allows me to believe the idea that the bad is gone and never reached me, and that all I live is good. All I need to do is to find it if it isn’t immediately evident.

With the advent of Fall, when cooler weather and shorter periods of daylight appear to take over our lives, as well as the convalescence period I’m involved with since my accident, leaving me with hours of sitting in one spot as I’m unable to be as physically active as I once was, I find myself creating these “Tools”, if you will. Plying my creativity in my choices of wood, sinew, beads, feathers, leather and findings.

I’m pleased to have this idea of Native American influence and this form of Folk Art in my life. With each circle I work with, I see places where life has twisted or turned, for good or bad, or what might have been perceived as good or bad, and the idea that the circle continues on its twisted convoluted journey and path and connects us all.

Mitakwe Oyasin

Peace