Little Birdie - Go Back To Sleep!

There's a very large patch of azaleas outside of my bedroom window. They are very large bushes, and great for hiding rabbits and birds.

It wasn't even 6:00 a.m. this morning when one of those little birds started singing outside of my window. I usually love to wake up to the sound of birdsong. I listened for awhile and realized that this little one was singing all by itself. Everything else was still asleep, including me. Well, actually, i wasn't asleep any more. It took almost 45 minutes for that bird to wake up some other birds, so finally, it had a chorus to sing with.

It woke me up from a somewhat unpleasant dream. I've been dreaming a lot lately, and have found that those dreams affect my waking time much more than perhaps i would like. For instance, this week i dreampt that i was eating lettuce and then i saw ivy. The next day, i had a large desire for a nice salad and then spent an hour pulling ivy from the trees in our yard.

Last night's dream was interesting, but didn't paint me in the most flattering light. In fact, in the dream, i was bitchy and self-serving. Yikes. I had to think about that one... Sometimes i try to be perfect. The pursuit of perfection. It's a tough path, and for some reason, i'm not sure if it leads very far towards that goal of illumination. Last night, before i went to sleep, i was reading Hafiz, and read the poem Effacement.

There's so much mirroring everywhere i look - even with my eyes closed and dreaming.

Effacement
Is a golden gun.
It was not easy to hold it against my head
And fire!

I needed great faith in my master
To suffocate myself
With his holy bag
Full of truth.

I needed great courage
To go out into the dark
Tracking God into the unknown

And not panic or get lost
In all the startling new scents, sounds,
Sights.

Or lose my temper
Tripping on those scheming
Night and day around me.

Hafiz,
Effacement is the emerald dagger
You need to plunge

Deep into yourself upon
This path to divine
Recovery----

Upon this path
To God.