Final Corrections for 'We Meet in Dreams': A Mystic's Journal
Image: Our backyard during the storm.
Friday, January 6
Dinner with Johnny and Peg; they brought dinner here, from the Souvlaki House. Peg and I settled in on the big living room couch, and Johnny sat on meditation cushions across from us. Brought in some kitchen chairs to use as rudimentary tables. A picnic of sorts, and something we had never done. Afterwards we threw out the various containers and bags; our meals came in, washed the dishes, put the chairs back - and then spoke for hours, on many divers and interesting topics. Johnny's Irish baritone voice is close to music, both in timbre and inflection - and deep and vibrant, like a Welshman's.
Friday, January 13
Our first real day of snow - big, fluffy flakes everywhere in the wind. The gardens and trees sparkling fairylands. Spent a good deal of the day looking out the windows to watch the snow's progress; tomorrow night it is supposed to go down to 2 degrees. Winter has finally arrived.
Wrote Diana and asked how she is progressing with the book.
Sunday, January 15
Diana wrote: She is addressing a renegade endnote. I told her to ignore it.
Monday, January 16
Another e-mail from Diana.
Thank you for saying it's okay to ignore the uncategorized endnote I found. That will make my process easier.
I told her that I would wait until she is entirely done before I reproof the book. And then I will contact the publisher. When at this stage with the last book, Realms of Light, by the time Diana and I had finished our work our publishing team had changed and we had to start over again from the beginning with a new team.
A new message from Diana tonight: I'm on endnote 48... moving along! Gasp!! I have found several mistakes while browsing through the manuscript for endnotes.... words that ran together ("Other times") and paragraphs ended & begun without spaces between them.
With all the times Diana and I - and my editors - proofed this volume, it seems inconceivable that there could still be errors. And yet there they indisputably are.
Tuesday, January 17
An e-mail from Diana. She finally finished the endnote modifications and the Table of Contents; she changed the tiny sun icons in the Table of Contents to newly created moon icons, since the book is about dreams. She intends to redo the sun icon on the Dedication page. Diana thoughtfully added: Don't worry, this doesn't take long!
Then the end pages which she expects to tackle today, and her goal is to be done with the entire project by her birthday on Thursday.
Of course, then I need to reproof the entire book - and Heaven knows what I will find and what added corrections will emerge.
An e-mail from my friend Patrice: She intends to come for some months next fall and might have already found a wonderful furnished room a mere few blocks from us.
10:40 p.m.
Just came back from a walk. A wild, windy night. Over forty degrees, but with the wind's ferocity all around me, I wore my winter jacket with the hood up. The recent snow sparkling in the lamplight now replaced with remnants of the day's rain. Huge fluffy clouds, a star here and there in the gaps. No moon. No people. The houses in Ithaca are mainly wooden and very old, with diverse porches and various embellishment - and interesting, unusual architecture; rarely are two houses alike. All sizes and shapes, coexisting without a murmur. Tonight lit Christmas trees still in some windows; most windows dark, asleep. The lit windows here and there beckoning, inviting the imagination to wonder who lives there, what the people are doing; I always think people are happy inside those unknown lit rooms. Strands of Christmas lights still on some houses. Said prayers for Our Lady's Intentions for the world as I walked and looked and wondered at my fellow beings, warm and protected in their homes on such a frenzied night. The Spensers had taken down their Christmas decorations, but still have candles in the windows. Inside again, the night is again quiet, calm - no hint of the outer unquiet. Strangely, I long to be outside once more, and might take another walk later, after some of my tasks are done.
Just looked at my e-mails. Diana has sent me the Table of Contents and endnotes to correct. She said she found a few format errors and suggested I check the entire file again.
Wednesday, January 18
Sent Diana a few stray corrections: a spacing here or there, font problems, endnote problems. Told her I would print the file and reproof the entire manuscript.
An e-mail from my student in Trinidad; in spite of his immense philosophic training and intellectual understanding, he is still having trouble understanding the very Nature of the Quest he is on. He wrote:
"I do not see the spiritual connection in all these trials." Meaning his troubles at home and at work.
I wrote an e-mail back : Welcome to the Quest! These trials ARE the Quest ... Otherwise all you have read and done is untried, untested. It is time to integrate, to LIVE the Quest. xxx
Thursday, January 19
A cold, windy day. Did errands with JF. Printing up We Meet in Dreams now, and will proof the entire thing for the last time. Meanwhile, Diana is at Crush Lake, meditating. During the winter of 2009, while she was working on Realms of Light, she had a dream that she drove to a little lake and meditated there. When she awoke, she remembered the name of the lake and managed to find it on a map of Texas. As it turns out, the little lake was only about twenty minutes east of Dallas. Ever since that time she has wanted to go to Crush Lake and meditate there.
I wrote Diana, wished her luck at Crush Lake, sent angels - and added that as a birthday present, I hoped I would not find any more errors in the manuscript.
The book is still printing up, and I am punching holes as it prints. So I can put these updated pages in the big three-ringed binder downstairs. Must remember to check the folios as well as everything else this last time around. Diana and I worked on the wording of the artist's page last night, and chose a photograph. But she still has a few end pages left to put together and format. Aside from any corrections I might send her, Diana should be done with her work on the book within a day or two. My work - will take longer.
Printing and punching are done; all 284 or so pages of We Meet in Dreams are now residing in the big three-ringed binder downstairs, patiently waiting for me to begin. This volume is almost a hundred pages longer than Visits With Angels, which will affect the price. A bridge to be crossed later. Meanwhile, I had better begin.
1:30 a.m.
Have been working steadily for many hours. I am not a good proofreader. I always begin the task by trying to examine every word, every space, every spelling and punctuation - and before I am aware of it, I am instead lost in the ideas. Found only a few errors, and all of them are related to ideas or formatting: incorrect end notes, incorrect information, font problems. For all I know words could be missing, or doubled, or spelled incorrectly throughout the manuscript. For this I have to trust in Diana's work and the editors that went through the text twice or three times previously.
I am exhausted.
And Diana will be at the same time pleased and not pleased that I have more corrections. I will wait until I have finished the entire manuscript and then send her all the corrections in one e-mail.
Friday, January 20
Diana found Crush Lake (of her dream) and meditated there on her birthday, with a friend. Apparently Crush Lake is a pristine blue, oval, with a fringe of pine trees. While there Diana said a prayer of protection for the little lake, and thanked it for its beautiful spirit. Whether her Quest re Crush Lake was fulfilled or not, she writes that the lake called to her in her dream - and she went. She concluded that therefore - in some way she could not define - her mission was fulfilled.
Monday, January 23
Sent Diana all my corrections. She plans to finish everything within the week. Then I will check all the corrections, as well as her new end pages, before we send the manuscript to the publisher. I suppose we could endlessly continue to make corrections and changes if we wished - in fact, I could rewrite the entire book. Unlike my piano concerts for live audiences, which are recorded only in our quickly fading memory - a book is printed, frozen on paper. Once printed - there it is. And yet in many ways that it's very beauty ... That we can open a book and find the same words there, in the same order, unfolding in the same way each time we read it ...
11:50 p.m.
Almost fifty degrees outside tonight; just returned from a walk. This must be our January thaw, following a few days of early morning below zero weather. I rarely meet another human on these winter nocturnal strolls. Tonight I passed a striped orange cat walking next to a skunk on the sidewalk; gave them both Our Lady's Blessing from Medjugorje and then continued on my way. The sky mainly big, fluffy white clouds ... A mysterious, mystical night ... When I finally reentered our front door the warmth and cheeriness of the kitchen, and the small clear Christmas lights in the windows a stark contrast to the night's lack of color ... And yet I am tempted again to put on my jacket and scarf, walk down the streets again with my friends the wind and stars and night clouds, under the mantle of night's magical darkness and mist ...
