I feel a ramble coming on! It's morning and scarily this is sometimes my best writing time. Dreamed about Charles Darwin last night. Well, not exactly him, more his work. Before I went to sleep I'd been reading 'Darwin, His Life in Poetry' written by Ruth Padel, his great, great granddaughter (not sure if there's enough 'greats' in there). She is a poet and brilliant writer of how to understand poetry I've ever come across. She has used Darwin's journals and notes and incorporated them into poems which trace his life. Anyway, sometimes when I am too tired to read a chapter of a book before sleeping I dip into poetry. This one I've been dipping into to for probably a year now and last night words were milling around in my head whilst asleep, names of flowers and plants (not the Latin names!), I guess because the poem I was reading was about experiments Darwin did with seeds in salt water. This brings me on to two points.
my second point is...how active our brains are at night! Sometimes I think I don't dream unless I wake or am disturbed when in the middle of a dream, then I realise that my head is crammed with thoughts, sometimes flitting, other times it's like a mini film playing out. There are those weird ones when all that has happened in the day comes together in a mish-mash of strange events, there are the sad ones, the ones where troubles play on your mind and those that seem so real that when you wake they hang on you all day in a disturbing fashion. Isn't it strange that people have very similar dreams, the running but not getting anywhere dreams, falling, dreaming of loved ones who seem younger than they were or the dreams when you know you are in a dream but you can't wake up! I find it fascinating what goes on in dreams, that even when we are resting our minds are going at it like there's no tomorrow. The dreams I like are those that you wake from that are so good that you try to return to them. Unfortunately, it seems the nasty ones are the more likely dreams that you slip back into. Obviously what we think about before sleeping continues on subsconsciously as we try to work through things. Some of my dream have been quite hilarious which can make for good writing material. Creativity isn't just for daydreams, proper dreams can spark a lot of ideas and even reassure. Perhaps I write better in the morning because I have just slept and all those dreams are still seeping through. I kept a dream diary for a time. It's worth a go. Again, I found it a creative source for writing when looking back on it six months down the line, but even if you don't write, it's amazing the insight to be gained from such a process. Try it. Any thoughts, anyone?
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| Lewes, East Sussex |
First, Darwin is a bit of a hero of mine, which for someone who is scientifically and mathematically inept is rather weird (me not him!), but he did so much and was right about so much that it is mindblowing. What he struggled with, science-v-God, people still struggle with today. Let's face religion in the past was black and white (some still is). Galileo certainly had a tough time and had to retract certain things, was even under house arrest, because the Bible said one thing and he found out another (for a good book see 'Galileo's Daughter' by Dava Sobel). Darwin had the same struggles with his faith, his wife's beliefs and what the world at large would make of his findings. He kept it all to himself for a long time, so long that others were about to beat him too it. To question things is not a sin. Sometimes you have to go off and find things out for yourself. I was watching EastEnders last night, Lucas's Bible Study, and one of the congregation told her niece off for asking questions. Bible Study and faith is about asking questions. I don't want to just be told this is the way things are and you either accept it or you are a sinner. You learn by asking questions, finding out for yourself, making it a personal journey. Maybe I am getting off the point here so........
my second point is...how active our brains are at night! Sometimes I think I don't dream unless I wake or am disturbed when in the middle of a dream, then I realise that my head is crammed with thoughts, sometimes flitting, other times it's like a mini film playing out. There are those weird ones when all that has happened in the day comes together in a mish-mash of strange events, there are the sad ones, the ones where troubles play on your mind and those that seem so real that when you wake they hang on you all day in a disturbing fashion. Isn't it strange that people have very similar dreams, the running but not getting anywhere dreams, falling, dreaming of loved ones who seem younger than they were or the dreams when you know you are in a dream but you can't wake up! I find it fascinating what goes on in dreams, that even when we are resting our minds are going at it like there's no tomorrow. The dreams I like are those that you wake from that are so good that you try to return to them. Unfortunately, it seems the nasty ones are the more likely dreams that you slip back into. Obviously what we think about before sleeping continues on subsconsciously as we try to work through things. Some of my dream have been quite hilarious which can make for good writing material. Creativity isn't just for daydreams, proper dreams can spark a lot of ideas and even reassure. Perhaps I write better in the morning because I have just slept and all those dreams are still seeping through. I kept a dream diary for a time. It's worth a go. Again, I found it a creative source for writing when looking back on it six months down the line, but even if you don't write, it's amazing the insight to be gained from such a process. Try it. Any thoughts, anyone?
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