We woke in bed in each others' arms in the middle of the night. It turned out that the one hotel in the town had our rooms in it, and they were adjoining. So we both could take our hot showers and relax after our adventures. She brought her bandages and tonics to my room to treat all those scratches I had, as well as hers. But soon we were both asleep, exhausted from what we'd been through that day.
My dreams had been of that statue and its curious effects. How it possibly could have happened, how it got there, how it was carved. I dreamed of huge fires in that valley and people bringing wood so the artists could work through the night to carefully chip and polish the stone into the likeness needed. There was a master artisan who directed the work, and the chief who commanded the foreman to keep the wood coming. Half the village was busy with the effort to carve that statue, the others busy providing food for the workers. Temporary huts dotted the floor of the canyon, with tall ladders which reached to the top, along with ropes to let down food and supplies.
Finally, the work was done, the village celebrated and feasted as the foot of the figure. The local medicine man/priest gave invocation to the gods and offerings surrounded the base of the figure, just outside the circle. All rubble had been cleared away, valuable for healing as well as destroying enemies with its power. The medicine man had a necklace of the rocks, alternating white and black, around his neck as he gyrated and jumped in his dance of celebration and prayer.
The storm clouds gathered above the statues and the mothers sent their children scurrying up the ladders. Other youth used the ropes to climb up the walls, walking up them as if they were on flat ground, hand over hand up the woven fiber as they went. The chief waited as long as he could, and then nervously gave an order to a waiting assistant as he turned and headed to the ladders.
That assistant grabbed one of the ropes and managed to get next to the medicine man to tie it on to his waist - then scurried himself to a nearby rope to pull himself up and along.
Just before the tidal flood hit, the old man was pulled away from the statue and up the wall, suspended by the rope and pulled just ahead of the rising water. He didn't seem to notice, as he continued to chant and shake his fisted rattles as he went.
Beneath the water, the statue seemed to glow, even move...
But that was when I woke up.
My sudden jerk awakened Doreen, who had her head on my chest. She looked up sleepily into my eyes and smiled. "What was that? Bad dreams?"
"Something like that, I replied."
"You want to share?"
"No, it's not all that important."
"Must have been something to wake you up like that."
"Yea, but I can tell you what's more important..."
She nuzzled by cheek. "You might get back to sleep better if you told."
"I know what will make us both sleep better..."
45
"What can I help you with, Joe?" Charles Haanel asked from a nearby seat. "You look perplexed, or puzzled, perhaps." Dressed in a 1920's-period suit, he was comfortably seated, biding his time by answering correspondence from his students.
"It's a few points, but mainly this point of creation being a key part to living."
"Love is the Master Force in this Universe, a law which can be denied, but not broken. It is Love which built all you see around you. Love is the creative force."
"So this falls into loving your neighbor as yourself?"
"Simply, as you love others you create them. You cannot hate a person out of existence. It is like a dark room. You don't shovel out the dark, instead you turn on more light."
"Then I should expand my creative nature, my Love to deal with adversity from others?"
"It is very much like the parable of the light under the basket. Don't hide your native abilities to Love and create. Let them shine."
The Nazarene nodded, and many others as well.
"My dreams, they are created?"
"Everything is created. It's more the question of whether you take responsibility for your creations. Contact the Universal and you'll see the answers you need. Seek the Silence daily and allow these answers to come to you."
More affirmations of this concurred from around the table. More smiles and quiet talks between the members of this set of counselors.
Haanel continued, "What you do with your life, in your dreams as you call them, is entirely up to you. You will get all the guidance you could possibly want - if you will but listen for it."