Hold my hand and we'll dance across the sand and into the light

To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.

Agnes De Mille

(1905-1993)

We ought to dance with rapture that we might be alive... and part of the living, incarnate cosmos.

D.H. Lawrence

(1885-1930)

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.

Robert Henri

(1865-1929)

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

Kate Chopin

(1850-1904)

I dream sometimes very vividly and I know that it's considered a good idea to write down the fleeting details of a dream so that one can contemplate later what it is one's subconscious is trying to say. I try to do this more often than not. Sometimes though a dream I have is simultaneously vivid but unclear. The outstanding recollection is one of the emotions, sometimes very strong emotions or sensations, but only snippets of a storyline rather than something fully realised. Isn't that the wonder of dreaming?

In order to record these dreams too, I found several years ago that pictures sometimes serve me better than words and I started creating collages to capture them - just made very quickly with pictures torn from magazines or taken from the huge collection of pre-cut images I have in lots of little envelope folders (it's a compulsion I've had since I was a small child and is shared by my sister - I don't know why, but both of us do this. It's the same with quotations - I cannot stop myself. When I read or hear something that resonates with me, I write it down. I have a collection of thousands...). I still do these paper collages but I buy far fewer magazines now than I used to so I don't have as many to choose from that happen to fit the dream in question. Fortunately, now there's Flickr... source of so many gorgeous, evocative images.

This mosaic is one I made yesterday in response to such a dream. There was a man. A stranger but someone who I just knew I could trust. There was autumn light, and fairy lights, the beach and dancing... effortless swirling, swept-away-by-the-music dancing. I was a much better dancer than I am in real life because I floated. His shirt was crisp and smelt of soap and he held my hand as we walked (I was very conscious of that - I do miss holding hands) and I picked up feathers. The colours were all bluey greys and warm glowing chocolate shades. And that was it. Nothing more in the way of detail. But I woke up feeling all smily and soothed. Nothing profound or obscure in meaning here I don't think... just a sweet, gentle, wish fulfillment dream. But it was lovely. And this mosaic is how I'll remember it.

Perhaps it's time to start attending Tango classes again...

Or just dreaming more.

Happy Monday!
♥

[Thank you to these Flickr beauties for making it possible to capture and express this]