Today is December 2 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you remind yourself to tread softly on the dreams of others?”
Those that navigate the chaos often help others achieve their dreams.
While navigating the chaos you should remain aware of others you encounter along your path.
Are you so busy, focused, or driven that you ignore the dreams of others?
If so, what does that say about yourself? Everyone has the capacity to dream.
Even though some people may not remember their dreams that occurred during sleep, they certainly have the capacity to dream while awake. This is especially true when it comes to navigating the chaos of relationships.
Irish poet and nationalist W.B. Yeats published the poem Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven in 1899 and wrote the following eight line poem:
“HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
The speaker of the poem is the character Aedh (is an Irish and Scottish Gaelic male given name, originally meaning "fire") who appears in Yeats's work alongside two other archetypal characters of the poet's myth: Michael Robartes and Red Hanrahan.
The three are collectively known as the principles of the mind. Whereas Robartes is intellectually powerful and Hanrahan represents Romantic primitivism, Aedh is pale, lovelorn, and in the thrall of The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy.
As one review of the poem noted: "The message is straightforward, and a perennial one in poetry. The speaker, addressing his lover or would-be lover, says: if I were a rich man, I’d give you the world and all its treasures. If I were a god, I could take the heavenly sky and make a blanket out of it for you. But I’m only a poor man, and obviously the idea of making the sky into a blanket is silly and out of the question, so all I have of any worth are my dreams. And dreams are delicate and vulnerable – hence ‘Tread softly’.
How often do you ‘tread softly’ on the dreams of others while navigating the chaos?