A Daughter's Dream

"Now that we have answered your questions," her father said smiling, "we have a few of our own." He leaned back, crossed his arms on his chest and feigned sternness. "What are you doing here? And how did you find us?"

"I had to come," said Meredith. "I can see that now. Growing up with a famous anthropologist for a mother and a famous gestalt psychologist for a father, what else could I do? I was raised on wanting to heal the world. Though I got my degree in ecology, and though I did my fieldwork, that wasn't enough. It didn't stop me from wanting to do more. I drank that in with my mother's milk.

"Both of you taught me that learning and thinking are not enough, that I must also feel and sense what is happening. I have to learn to trust my intuition, and be willing to step beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary, to allow myself to dream. Whenever I do that, everything becomes clear.  

"This journey is like that for me. Everything is coming clear. Before, my focus was so limited and narrow. Now I begin to understand the world differently, from a wider view. I can't put this into words easily, but I feel that all will be well, and that we and the earth will survive and heal."

A Daughter's Duty

"Spoken like a true Daughter of the Earth," said her father, jokingly.

"And like a Daughter of the Sun, too," said her mother smiling. "Meredith, I worry about you, though," she said seriously. "You are still young to face the dangers that you have seen here. It's different with us. We are not exactly old, but we have already lived full lives. We have nothing to lose."

Our Daughter

"You know, Andrew," said her mother, turning to her husband, "we visited these Dream Worlds several times before we made the decision to stay. We returned here at critical moments in our lives. It is not surprising that Meredith would do the same. We probably left a trail of energy for her to follow without realizing it."

"Yes, Jean, I believe we did." Meredith's father drew his wife close to him.

"I followed and here I am," said Meredith, hugging them both.

Save the Earth?

"In a few moments you must continue on that journey, Meredith. Your father will guide you to the Fifth World."

"Come," he said to Meredith, "I'll take you there."

"There's one more thing I want to say before you go," her mother said. "I know how you yearn to save the earth, but the only way to do that is to save yourself. I mean, you must find your own soul and heart first. It is wonderful to work on the environment and reduce pollution. But we scientists tend to focus too much on external events and ignore what's going on inside us. That is part of what I love your father. His concern is the inside story."

"But I can get lost in external events too," her father said. "Studying the workings of the mind as if it were external, a machine. I need to stay in touch with the workings of my own mind, existentially, as it is right now, not as I can theorize about it."

Mindless Monsters

"I understand," said Meredith. "I can get caught up in what is going on out there and forget about what's going on in here," she said, touching her forehead.
"I have sometimes been just like one of those mindless gray monsters who trampled over you just now. In fact, I have been just the same, obsessed with my own schemes and projects, researching and pursuing my own goals relentlessly as if nothing else existed or mattered. I block everything out that might distract me."