July 29, 2004

• It’s so odd. During most of the year I’m an insomniac averaging less than five hours a night, but around the end of July through August and early into September, I sleep about ten hours a day. And frequently I feel the need for a nap (though I resist). I feel completely like a lazy sack despite the fact that I get home from work at midnight or later… I average a wake up time of 11 AM. I need at least 10 hours just so I don’t feel lethargic through the day.

  
  

  So earlier today, when I was sleeping away the summer, I had an interesting dream. Because of course, with all this sleeping, I have to be dreaming something.

  
  

  First I dreamed I was at a picnic with lots of famous movie stars and muppets. I met Whoopie Goldberg (I really like her movies), but she already seemed to know me. It was somebody’s birthday and I asked her if she was going to sing. She was surprised because she thought I already knew she was. Then I went up the street to a pharmacy and met Miss Piggy coming out, but it was really an old friend of mine from childhood who I haven’t seen in years and who had been Miss Piggy for years without my knowledge.

  
  

  Then I dreamed I lived in an impoverished town in China with my mother, an older sister and a younger sister. An evil shaman moved into town and set up a stall in the middle of an intersection. He was really an agent of a company that wanted everyone to move off the land so they could buy it up and build a factory. While people slept, he could go into their dreams and kill them. Soon everyone in town was packing up to leave, but my family had nowhere to go.

  
  

  While I was asleep in my dream, I saw the shaman go to sleep and come as a shadow to attack my sisters and mother. I woke up quickly and tried to wake up my little sister but she died before I could. My mother was already dead, and he got my older sister just as she was beginning to wake. So I jumped up and rushed to the stall where the shaman was sleeping and I smothered him.

  
  

  Then, with nowhere to go and knowing the company would come for me, I packed up all my belongings and began running down a hill. I took a leap into the air and began flying. This was something I had always been able to do and something my family had tried to keep secret, but since they were now gone, I didn’t see a reason to hide my ability. (Actually, I can often fly in my dreams.)

  
  

  I flew past a city where people were gathering in the streets, discussing how the companies and city planners were building over playgrounds and parks and other cultural centers. They stood around in professional clothes, suits, ties, business attire, wondering why their companies would build over places where their children could play. As I flew past I shouted, “It’s because they only see you as numbers!” And I kept flying while people stared and pointed, too startled by a flying girl to think about what I said.

  
  

  I kept flying, but eventually I had to come down to eat, and that was when the company caught me. Years before, they’d dumped some toxic waste in the soil under the town where I grew up and some people got special powers. So they had sent the shaman (actually another person effected by their toxic waste and turned mercenary) to get people to leave so they could clean it up and no one would be the wiser.

  
  

  So since I’d killed their agent, they wanted me to replace him. They locked me up in a room. I was chained to the walls on either side, with a length of chain also between my hands. They put a bowl of soup on the floor in front of me and left me, hoping to break my will. I had just enough chain to bend and reach the bowl with my tongue, but couldn’t get any in my mouth.

  
  

  I was in the room for a long time, until finally a group of people like myself broke in and rescued me. There was one guy could make his shadow solid, and the shadow was super strong. But I can’t remember what the others could do. I was very afraid of him though, because he reminded me of the shaman’s shadow.

  
  

  **

  
  

  For those who read my comic and Newsletter, I haven’t forgotten you. Arkana remains on Monday, but I’ve moved Free Range Poetry to Fridays. I’ve moved the Newsletter to a bi-weekly schedule, so I’ll be updating it every other week from now on, but still on a Wednesday. Which means, there is an update there, waiting for you if you care to read it.

  
  

  This edition of the Ancient Whispers Newsletter covers the Lammas/Lughnasadh holiday. The article, craft, and all of the Sites of Interest will give you more than enough information to make your holiday fun for all ages.

  
  

  *~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~* Index *~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

  
  

  Some Sites of Interest
  

  Irish Fire Festivals: Lughnasadh
  Lammas, Lughnasadh
  Lughnasadh Dance
  Lughnasadh Recipes
  *~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

  
  

  This Pagan Week : July-August
  Humor : Little Lost DOg
  Article : Lughnasadh
  Quote : Jerome Blattner
  Craft of the Week : Lughnasadh Associations
  Humor : Jay Leno
  Who’s Who in World Mythology : Badari
  Quote :Anonymous
  The Magi’s Garden :China Berry
  Cartoon
  Poem : We live by the sun
  Quote :Oprah Winfrey
  The Power of Stones : Cacoxenite
  Humor : Hard Decision
  A Dreamer’s Guide : Peddler to People
  Quote :Leo Rosten
  Previous Newsletters

  
  
  

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