My Dream Maker Purchases

What’s up, everybody.  Listen, I wanted to share a couple of things I bought over the weekend at my favorite metaphysical gift shop located within the city.  The place is called The Dream Maker (here’s a link to their website: http://www.dreammakershop.com), and my best friend and I absolutely love this place.  We kind of discovered it over a year ago during a time where a few unexpected twists were happening in both our lives and relationships with others.  However, in a general sense, we've always loved and believed in stuff (I really don’t mean to use the term “stuff” lightly) like this.  Nevertheless, the Universe and its timing during periods of necessary growth and change is always on point.  Our Dream Maker visits helped “charge“ and motivate positivity into our lives.  Or at least helped point us in the direction of alignment with the positives.  It started with collecting crystals and gemstones (which I suppose I should share) and moved into collecting all sorts of other things, including this jade frog I keep near my door to attract money.  I adore the frog regardless, though.  

My intention on this weekend visit was to find a large quartz crystal point to help jump start my established crystal/gemstone/rock collection for the New Year.  However, I walked out with all Native American items, along with a bill that was shockingly less than $40.  I had a lot of assistance in making my decision; the shop keepers/employees are extremely friendly, helpful, and suggestive.  Every time my best friend and I leave the place we always smile about how good we feel.  We're always excited about carrying on that feeling with our new acquisitions.

It didn't take much convincing for me to purchase this shiny abalone shell.  I looked at many handcrafted boxes and bowls to see what would suit as a new bed for my crystals/gemstones to rest inside before deciding the shell might work and look cool at the same time.  As always, the shopkeepers and their little item description tags helped move my decision.  Apparently, abalone shells are known for providing growth and clarity within individuals, as well as assisting with smudging practices/ceremonies.  Considering we’re talking about metaphysics, this is vibrationally speaking.  So I went about picking me out a nice one, as you see here.  However, I didn't use it for gemstones after I floated around the shop catching my eye on something else I could use the shell for.

One of the shopkeepers was busy rearranging a shelf of new items while I was picking through other Native American products, and reading up on something called wishing paper.  As I am somewhat easily excitable and loud in places like this, the shopkeeper eased over to explain their new product called incense powder.  Ordered by a company called Anna Riva, they were new and selling really well in the shop--according to the shopkeeper.  Curious as I am, I saw that each bottle had a tag explaining what each mixture of power represented.  One simply titled “Job” was self-explanatory.  However, there were others like “Desire Me” and “Drive Away Evil” that really had my curious.  I decided to give this a go, asking the shopkeeper if it would be okay if I burned the powder incense in my new-found abalone shell.  He said it would work, but I just learned that heat transfers quickly through the shell.  I burn very little powder on a stable surface after nearly melting a hole into my PS3.  Anyway, after a short deliberation between choosing the “Five of Love” powder or the “Quick Money”, I chose the “Quick Money” powder.  Hey, I want to travel aboard some time this year.  Don’t judge me.  Besides, the “Quick Money” powder smells amazing.  Straight out of the bottle it has an airy lemon scent.

Unsure of the practices of using incense powder, I researched Anna Riva’s website (I’ll link it here: https://www.annarivas.com) to get some facts.  According to the site, using “Quick Money” required the user to write the amount they wish to receive on a piece of paper.  Place the paper underneath the instrument housing the burning incense and repeat each day.  I’m on day three and I can say that after five months I finally made another sell in my Amazon Marketplace shop.  Not to mention Sunday I found a dollar on the ground at work and gave it to a customer who was short on change.

The last thing I’m listing was actually the first thing I picked up during the visit.  I was just attracted to this item right away.  It’s a brass chime if I’m not mistaken.  There really wasn't much discussion over this item while I was in the shop, only that I was interested in this particular color.  Nevertheless, my intentions was to use the chime as a means of musical meditation.  Something about the tinkering of the chimes exudes calmness.  If anyone has any information or suggestions for its use, please pass it on to me.

Toward the end of our visit, the shopkeeper and owner took out some of the flying wish paper that I mentioned earlier.  They were allowing some customers to try them out, seeing that this was a new in-store product.  Made mainly out of rice paper, the purpose of flying wish paper is to send your wishes out into Heaven/Universe where they can come true, or manifest into your life.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to give it a try.  While it was difficult to write clearly on the paper itself, I let my intentions do most of the “writing” as I took an extra three minutes making my inner self clear.  After you write your wish on the paper, you roll the paper up into a tube then light a match to it.  The minute the flame touches the paper, the wish paper takes off.  Because we were inside we lit the paper and watched it lift, almost smoldering in the air.  The shopkeeper caught the burnt paper in plastic baggies and instructed us to take them home and release them there.  I did so the next morning before work, but hours before then, I walked out of The Dream Maker feeling both elated and comforted by the whole experience.

Can anyone guess what I asked for on my paper?  I'll hint that it was two things.

India.Arie's "Break the Shell"

I just had to share this song by India.Arie.  Since her latest album, SongVersation, came out back in June, I’ve been trying to find ways to share my love of its material through my blog.  There is just so much to examine on this album, and so many lessons in relation to our lives as we try to better ourselves.  All of this is told consciously through Arie's amazing voice, of course.  And since I like taking a closer look at life here, I felt like this album would provide a perfect source to do so.  

The song I’m featuring is India.Arie’s song “Break the Shell”, a powerful song about feeling and living life while in display of our vulnerabilities.  Many times we allow our past and circumstances to build walls around us, walls that keep us from breaking out into our Truth and living the life that we desire.  How often do we suffocate our Truth to maintain that veneer of personal dishonesty, or to feel connected with others while disconnected inside?  What kind of freedoms do when gain when we break down our walls and allow the world to see us fly?  Listen to the performance, read the lyrics, and decide.

"Break the Shell"

I met a prophet dark as the night

She could see into my soul

Said she'd been watching and had some advice

She said shadows make you whole

A Life without pain is a wolf in sheep's clothes

'Cause if you listen to the lessons that it holds, you'll

find the gold

Child it's time to break the shell

Life's gonna hurt but it's meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

I can remember when I was a child

How the grown folks seemed so crazy

Why are they so angry?  Why are they so loud?

And when I grow up that's never, ever gonna be me

That was the moment that I decide

That I would build a wall just shy of 6 feet tall, too

strong to fall

Child it's time to break the shell

Life's gonna hurt but it's meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

Courage is not being hard

It's time to peel back all the layers

You put between who you're meant to be

And who you are

And go be who you are

So much disappointment to finally understand

That there is no such thing as perfect

We're all simply doing the best that we can

And we have the choice to live or truly be alive

This is your life

Child it's time to break the shell

Life's gonna hurt but it's meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

Child it's time to break the shell

Life's gonna hurt but it's meant to be felt

You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself

You cannot fly, until you break the shell

Do with these words what you will

It's time for us to be for real

You'll be stuck on the ground until

You finally break the shell

Tao and Satisfaction

I’m pretty sure we all believed or have stated that we don’t ask for much from people and life; whether that‘s outwardly true it's what we inwardly believe.  We attempt to be comfortable in our given--or created--situations.  We focus and strive for the biggest, most desired bit of transformation that we feel is required to bloom order and fulfillment into our lives.  We think that maybe if we get that one thing to happen, everything else will fall into place.  Or maybe those other annoyances concerning life wouldn't matter; fading away as we travel through our passions and destinies toward greatness   So when we've obtained our “big picture”, lying comfortably within it, where do we go from there?  And what is it about wanting more after receiving?

As I've read the third verse/chapter of the Tao through Dyer’s book and Derek Lin’s translation, I come to realize that learning how to be satisfied with life’s little unfoldings might be more of a fantasy than reality.  Like many, I've been condition to want so badly that I don’t believe it is even possible for me to reach such a level of content.  A level so strong that it blocks out all of my egocentric-driven desires.  See, I’m not sure where and when it happened, but life always just feels like a fight.  Like everybody else, I’m constantly contending with deep levels of inner habituations and outer influences.  So what am I (or we) left with when we travel through the two different verses of the Tao’s third verse/chapter translation?  Verses that ask us to let down our guard and relax ourselves on this plane by being auto-piloted by our spirits.  As always, let’s look at Dyer’s version then Lin’s.

Dyer’s translation reads as:

Putting a value on status

Will create contentiousness.

If you overvalue possessions,

People begin to steal.

By not displaying what is desirable, you will

Cause the people’s hearts to remain undisturbed.

The sage governs

By emptying minds and hearts,

By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.

Practice not doing…

When action is pure and selfless,

Everything settles into its own perfect place.

And Lin’s reads:

Do not glorify the achievers

So the people will not squabble

Do not treasure goods that are hard to obtain

So the people will not become thieves

Do not show the desired things

So their hearts will not be confused

Thus the governance of the sage:

Empties their hearts

Fills their bellies

Weakens their ambitions

Strengthens their bones

Let the people have no cunning and no greed

So those who scheme will not dare to meddle

Act without contrivance

And nothing will be beyond control

As always, I connect with Lin’s version better.  Yet, I always read his like poetry while in need of Dyer’s interpretation to sort of reorient any of my thoughts.  Nevertheless, I think at its basis, this verse/chapter is simple and clear:  let life do the heavy lifting and just show gratitude for what is as is unfolds into the purist form of your desires.  If you can’t accept things as they are and be appreciative, then you’ll always be in want of something.  Nevertheless, as I mentioned, it would take me tons of work to get pass my ego in order to reach such a state.  However, in many ways it really comes down to a single conscious thought for promoting inner change.  That nugget of information is there--it's with you now.  Depending on how persistent you are for change, you'll always have access to it.  So if you can at least program yourself (unless or until it comes unconsciously) to recognize situations that ask you to allow life to be, then you can make the conscious decision to do so when said situation arises.  That's a good place to start in my opinion.  It's an idea that helps many people who are just starting on spiritual paths or paths for change.  Because think about it, at one point you didn't have the tools necessary to change.  You were just bumbling about.  So maybe that'll be enough for now.  Recognizing the opportunities to step back and let life do the heavy lifting.

Sources

Dyer, Wayne W. Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2007.

Lin, Derek.  “Accurate Translation of the Tao Te Ching.” Accurate Translation of the Tao Te Ching. N.p. <http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm>.