Memorial Day is often synonymous with barbeques and the start of summer fun. Maybe you are fortunate enough to have an employer who gives you the day off with pay or maybe you get some extra cash in your paycheck for working on a holiday. Maybe you are able to spend this special day with your family and friends. These gatherings could be a great time for sharing your dreams with one another, both the dreams you have at night and your dreams for your waking life.
Fellowship and dream sharing, enjoying warmer weather and making summer plans – these can all be wonderful, relaxing ways to spend Memorial Day. But let us also take a moment to remember what Memorial Day is really all about: Honoring and remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that we could continue to share and live our dreams. Let us honor and remember those who also had fun with loved ones and who dreamed big dreams for themselves, because they are no longer able to share these things with us in the here and now. They may no longer be here, but here’s the deal: you are. Please take a moment to reflect on that, and to reflect on how we experience and interact with freedom in our own lives.
One way that we can honor those who sacrificed their lives to protect others is by living worthwhile lives of our own. Memorial Day may be a great opportunity to take a moment and remember the honored fallen, then go a step further and ask ourselves, What will I do with the freedoms that I’ve been given?
Consider the following questions. You may wish to ask these questions as an internal exercise, write them in your journal, or even bring them up as a point of discussion with a friend or family member. However you approach them, allow a sense of gentleness, curiosity, and wonder to guide you to the answers as you learn about yourself.
Where am I in my life right now?
What do I dream about, both when I’m awake and when I’m asleep?
What are my dreams for my waking life?
Am I dreaming up a worthwhile life for myself?
Am I engaged with my dreams for my life? How?
What can I do to get busy living at the pace that is right for me?
How can I live my life in a way that authentically honors those who gave their lives so that we could continue to dream?
As you ponder on your personal freedoms this Memorial Day weekend, and on the sacrifices of those who made them possible, you may find that your dreams at night are influenced by your thoughts and explorations. This is a wonderful opportunity to pull out your Dreamosophy guidebook, Wisdom of Dreaming: A Guide to an Effective Dream Life and engage with the exercises for the chapter on How to Be Free in Your Dreams, whether it’s for the first time or the 50th. Dreams can be a wonderful source of inspiration and teaching, if we let them be. Embrace them with gratitude and gentleness as we remember the interconnectedness of all life this Memorial Day.
