Emergence

I woke in the middle of the night from a recurring dream. Or perhaps I should say, a recurring place. In my dreams, there is a hiking trail that meanders through a mountain meadow, forests and then culminates in a spectacular vista of sky and a valley below. It often has felt so real that upon awakening, I think it’s an actual place. Sometimes, I start hiking and then the dream changes into something else. Sometimes, I start hiking and realize this isn’t the path I thought it was. Or I’ve taken a wrong turn. Or the path completely disappears and I’m just standing in a wilderness without a clue.

Last night, I dreamt I was telling someone about the trail, extolling its virtues. I said I’ve delayed returning because my husband Ron is no longer able to hike and I would need to go alone. The person asked me where this magical trail is. And I couldn’t remember. I could see it in my mind’s eye, I could describe it in detail, but I no longer knew its location.

It’s one thing to get lost on the path, or even to lose the path. But to lose its location, even in a dream, is a Jungian head scratcher. These dreams appear around key transition moments of my life, usually before I even realize that a transition is incubating. You’d think I have it down by now. I even included the path in my book, You’ve Got the Power. I actually have an exercise where you explore your path, obstacles, allies, goals, distractions. I’ve read every book about following your path over the last forty years from The Artist’s Way to the Magic Mountain. So to be unable to remember the location of my own path is, to coin a phrase, a “wake up” call.

Is it time to forget that path? To stop looking for the same path? Forge my own path? The mythologist Joseph Campbell said, “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path."

My assistant once informed me that my work lives “on the edge of woo.” While I read and listen deeply to hard science, I also respect the possibility that there is an unknown intelligence guiding me. To me this edge is related to the idea of emergence, something new and unpredictable coming from an already existing system. When I am perched on the edge of the unknown, what some scientists call “the edge of chaos,” something new can emerge.

Meanwhile, I have no clue of what will emerge, just a pregnant sense of possibility. Like the anthem from "West Side Story", I feel, “Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is, but it’s gonna be grand!” Enjoy the whole original song here!