So, today I want to begin a conversation about the DreamingOutLoud Technique and why your daily morning pages are so important. When you've written a good 50 pages in your journal, go through it and begin highlighting recurring emotional themes. Here's what I learned about dreams and my journal entry in 2012: This morning I woke up dreaming about _The Color Purple_. There were tears on my pillow and my cheeks were swollen and stained. I sat down immediately to write because I believe dreams hold the answers to all the stuff your head and your heart are struggling with. I went back to the moment in the film where Shug confronts her Daddy in church. (there are too many moments to count in that film that truly moved me and were seminal moments in filmmaking) It's hard to isolate one moment that left me in tears, but I will recall this one because I re-lived it last night in my sleep. It's the moment when Shug who has been holding onto the pain of her father's religious judgement and has severed the relationship with her realizes what she needs is more important that what he believes. She has an aha moment that the very thing her father disapproves of, her singing secular music with the rhythms of the church in the groove line, is the very thing which has kept her connected to the church. She loves the music that brought her close to God, to her community, to the epic struggle of her people to survive. She makes a career of singing because she does love God. And she's found a way for that love to help her make a living doing what she loves. A rare thing for anybody, but certainly a rare thing for a black woman in 1930's America. And for this love, her father sets her aside. Her journey into the world of secular music leads her to a life where she meets another man who loves her with limits (just like her father....see how we repeat the same emotional themes or chords?) I believe in this moment she realized that until, she healed that wound with the first man who could not find it in his heart to love her unconditionally, that she would be doomed to choosing the same man over and over again. It took a lot of courage for her to walk from that juke joint to her Daddy's church singing "God is trying to tell you something" and force him to see her; he may not like what she did for a living, but that did not give him the right to hold her love hostage._ She risked rejection again, but this time a rejection in front of the church full of people and juke joint patrons who would then have the power to throw her failure in her face if he did not accept. But her heart was hurting and she had to find a way to tell him she loved him, to embrace him despite his rejection of her. What a monumentally brave act of vulnerability. I wept in that theatre and I didn't care who saw me. I was a kid in college 3000 miles away from a mother who had rejected me and not spoken to me in 15 years for the same exact reasons (f*cking religion). Because I chose not to practice the religion she raised me in, I was excommunicated from her life until I would give in and "come to my senses and come back to the church." What's funny in instances like this is that the very thing that people hold onto and use as an excuse to control and punish others, is the very thing that is supposed to be about "unconditional love". Religion...oh, religion. These amazing books: the Bible, the Koran are filled with history, human error, frailty, stories of mercy and kindness, stories of humans at their best and at their worst exist to teach us not to repeat the same mistakes but to rise above them. And the first rule is to love, without limits, rules or conditions. And oddly enough, it's the first lesson we all abandon in our pursuit of religion...the fundamental tenet that holds it all together: unconditional love and forgiveness. Instead, we attach to the lessons that speak to our fears and need for control in an unpredictable world. I find it odd that the places we go to find compassion, comfort and hope are the places where our biggest takeaway is to find new reasons to justifiy hurting each other. Places where we find a way to be right and to get rewarded for being right by making someone else wrong. Big, beautiful books of wisdom are supposed to make us bigger, not smaller. The Universe is Trying to Tell You Something, Why are you ignoring her? ---------- "God Is Trying to Tell You Something" If I were you, I would say yes, speak, Lord. Speak to me. Oh, Speak, Lord. Won't you speak to me? I was so blind, I was so lost until you spoke to me Oh, speak, Lord. Speak, Lord. And hear my mind, Oh, with your word, heal my soul Oh, speak, Lord. Speak to me. Speak, my Lord. I love you, Lord. Save my soul Can't sleep at night and you wonder why Maybe God is trying to tell you something Crying all night long, something's gone wrong Maybe God is trying to tell you something Oh, you can't sleep at night and you sure wonder why Maybe God is trying to tell you something Trying, trying, trying, trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying Maybe God is trying to tell you something Maybe God is trying to tell you something Maybe God is trying to tell you something Maybe God is trying to tell you something Lord, He's got to tell you something Lord, He's got to tell you something. I hear you, Lord Maybe God is trying to tell you right now, right now I'm gonna praise your name I praise your name Speak to me, Lord Maybe God is trying to tell you something right now, right now, Right now Thank you, Lord Maybe God is trying to tell you something right now Right now, right now. Thank you, Lord If I were you I would say yes, Speak Lord, Speak to me Well you can't sleep at night And you sure wonder why Well maybe God is trying to tell you something You cry all night long Something has gone wrong Well maybe God is trying to tell you something God is trying to tell you something God is trying to tell you something Maybe God is trying to tell you something right now And what I thought was, where is my courage? Why can't I risk telling someone I love them even though I know they may reject me? I couldn't answer that question all those years ago when I was in college. **And because I couldn't answer this question, I couldn't write my story.** Why? Because I hadn't learned my most important Life Lesson, my first emotional chord. It's the same lesson, Shug needed to learn. What is it? Let's figure out how to learn your first emotional chord, so you can write the story longing to be heard: Your Soul Song. Join me in today's live 14 Day How to Write a Solo Show SLAM at 12:30pm (EST) and I'll spill the beans. Let's. Do. This. April & TheDreamUnLocked Team
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