I Believe in Dreams

Dreams are the ultimate mind/body/spirit connection. Nighttime dreams have been my divining rods since 1972, when a university professor gave an assignment to write them down. She taught us that Marc Chagall, the Russian artist, painted from his dream imagery. I have taken that simple assignment and expanded it into a lifelong passion of learning how to decode my dreams and how to let them navigate my life.

Just like using a LORAN system when sailing a boat or a GPS in your car, for me it is my nighttime dreams that provide my direction and my roadmap. Recently one dream, even though the symbols came in the forms of fear and trust, steered me on a clear and steady course to a new and fulfilling job.

Dreams come in the language of symbolism, color and metaphor. It’s the most amazing language to learn. They speak to us in relationships, textures, words and patterns. Dreams come to tell us what we don’t already know, and each night we have a barometric reading on our mind, body, and spirit.

Attending a professional workshop introduced me to a world of bigger dreaming. Like the Australian Aboriginal concept of “The Dreamtime” I was taught the Senoi Method of Dreamwork. This technique opens the dreamer to the immensity of a deeper reality. In waking life the dreamer works on the symbols of his or her nighttime dreams. Powerful allies are formed and he or she asks for a gift. The dream gift quest, in daily life, brings the dreamer in contact with people, places or skills that they would not have encountered if it were not for their sleep visions.

What happens after I follow a dream’s wisdom is as rich and varied as the dream itself. One word describes what the experience is like, clarity. It is a mind/body/spirit/emotion connection that occurs in an instant and is palpable. Clarity may come as an “aha moment” or as a calm whisper. It may come in the guise of humor or anger or grace. An empowering integration occurs, precise and bonding; to me, others and the Great Mystery because of the world of dreams.

Eleven years ago I asked for my dreams to shed light on a personal situation. My query was, if after a 17-year honeymoon, it was time for my husband and me to open the window of possibility to conceive a child. The symbolism came in the form of dancing deer. The dream’s message was conveyed through my body, not my mind. The dream was all about motion and emotion/movement and feeling. When I was 44 years old I conceived our son effortlessly, naturally and quickly.

A love of dreams and a profound history with them guides my life. Working on dreams is like the cause and effect of dropping a pebble in the middle of a still lake. The dream is the pebble; working on it creates the ripples. The ripples manifest in the people, places and things that you encounter or who you become, as the dream escorts you in waking life.

I believe in dreams, they are a crystal clear compass for my soul.