Jerry
Thank you for this beautiful response. A few things in this really resonated with me. What you are saying about introversion and true extraversion definitely rings true for me and it seems that we are definitely similar in many ways. I have been thinking about this dynamic recently and I realise that when the company is nurturing and aware (in an empathetic kind of way) then I absolutely love people and being around them. Being around such people (and they seem to be surrounding me more and more I am grateful to say) I feel no need to withdraw into solitude. It is only when I am around the normal forms of social interaction that I find my energy drained and feel a need to withdraw to recharge my batteries. Still I've always loved people but sometimes it's just hard to be around certain types for too long. It's like I feel drained by the negativity of a certain sort of realism which is so often crude and lacking a certain feeling. I dunno I still haven't fully figured it out yet but I know the feeling. It seems that introversion and extraversion can alternate.

It is interesting this issue of nurturing that this dream deals with. Since I've been in canada I've stopped trying to race to my goals and I've been working with an idea that I am happy but that clouds come up which distract from this. I've been working at dealing with these clouds but some of them are so habitual that they seem to crop up every day and obscure the sun. I've been trying to be gentle with myself I guess to be nurturing and to accept and care for these daily clouds of negative feelings. My focus on dreamwork has become part of this nurturing to find out the deeper causes of my discontent and to learn the lessons and heal these parts of me and integrate them. Of course it seems that the journey is going to be a very long one. This dynamic of my aunt and my mother has been recurring maybe 6 or 7 time in the past month and a half. I guess there is something of an ongoing dynamic at play with it.

Another point that resonates with me is this integrating who I was as a child with who I am as an adult. There has been a bit of a journey in the last few years in this respect. When I was a child I was very sensitive and cried at subtle things that wouldn't upset normal kids. This is not a very popular trait and does not lead to great pride since the common words of our society are more that crying is weak and there is a certain shame around sensitivity. I went from being this feeling kid to being a very intellectual boy and teenager. I was smart and very much a thinker. It is a way of dealing with feeling I guess I would self talk and rationally explain that there was nothing to be upset about. Over time my feelings faded. I was more thinker than feeler and that was the way until about 2 years ago when I experienced a time of crisis and grief where my heart was ripped back open again and sore as it was I found a strange gratitude and wonder at feeling so much even though it was negative and realised that I had been suppressing and had deadened my feelings. Since then I have relished emotion and sought to increase this feeling of aliveness which thought cannot bring. I am reminded of some words of Joe Campbell I read last week that people are not looking for a meaning of life but for the feeling of being alive. This seems to me an insight of the greatest degree. I guess I have been reconnecting with that feeling child these last couple of years and that this theme is a part of that integration.

What you are saying about the mononyth and this quote from Joe Campbell has me so excited and determined in this path. This inner journey I am coming across with Jung and Campbell is leaving me more and more awestruck as the implications of it are felt more and more. I'm not sure where I am in it but I shall like to explore where. I remember reading Jung's work on the chakras of the Indian traditions and his psychological interpretation of the journey through these and it has been in my mind again and again the last week as I am having these recurring dreams of water from floods to diving to finding myself breathing underwater or looking around underwater. Jung associates this with the solar plexus chakra of moving from unconsciousness to the unconscious which I guess is the ocean. It's extremely fascinating to see it occurong in my dreams although the flood is a bit intimidating I must admit.

Anyway enough of my musings thank you once more for all your help and guidance in the past few months and I wish you a very merry Christmas

Jimmy

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23 now in canada (previously travelling Australia) but from Ireland

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Internet search I think?

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes November 27- The Curse

Jimmy,
A brief reply on this Christmas morning to let you know I read your latest post and thank you for being open about your life and journey. As i stated earlier you are fortunate to have realized your journey and begun the process of becoming your true self so early in life. Continue to explore your inner world to and you will find wholeness and happiness in life. It is not always easy to determine where you are in your journey but I can say spirituality {beyond religion} and creativity are aspects you will need to examine and make a part of your life. That will come with time.

Continue your conscious journeys to other parts of the world and be kind and compassionate to all things. Karma {cause and effect} is the ultimate rule that determines fate, the natural world being the world we live in and are a part of. But there are guides, helping hands in the hero journey. Stay the path and be assured these helping hands will be there for you.
With that I will leave you with another quote from Joseph Campbell.

“The Hero Path

We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...
we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination
we shall find a God.

And where we had thought to slay another
we shall slay ourselves.
Where we had thought to travel outwards
we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone
we shall be with all the world.”

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 65 Cocoa, Fl

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Yes

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Jerry,

Thank you for sharing this quote is inspiring and amazing thank you very much and a merry Christmas to you!

Thanks,
Jimmy

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 23 now in canada (previously travelling Australia) but from Ireland

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Internet search I think?

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes November 27- The Curse