Photo: L. Weikel
Three Different Things
I distinctly remember thinking, as I was finishing up last night’s post, that I had at least three different subjects I could write a post about. They popped into my head just as I was finishing up, and I thought to myself, “I should write them down.”
Well, contrary to what I urge all my Listening Retreat participants to do whenever they receive some guidance or have a dream, I neglected to do so. I looked around, didn’t see anything within arm’s length upon which I could write those ideas down, so I gave up.
I regret to admit that I also distinctly remember saying to myself, “Oh forget it. I’ll remember them.”
Famous Last Words
Oh, what a trap that is. In fact, I think that’s one of the single most frequent reasons we give ourselves for not writing dreams down, especially. How many times have you awakened from a dream that is crystal clear in your mind – indeed, so crisp and detailed that you think to yourself, “I’ll have no trouble remembering this!?”
A corollary to the ‘this is so fresh and real I’ll never forget it’ syndrome, at least with respect to dreams, is the thought, “This is unbelievably mundane. So mundane that I’m not even going to waste my time and risk waking myself up even more than I already am to write it down.”
I specifically warn against the perils of failing to write these types of dreams down because I’ve found those seemingly mundane dreams often harbor surprisingly enlightening double entendres. And it’s virtually impossible (for me at least) to have the clarity and perspective to discern that I’m in the midst of a ‘play of words’ when it’s 4:00 a.m. and I’m still have inside the dreamworld. So – it’s only through the direct experience of realizing the depth of these seemingly superficial dreams that I’ve realized the importance of capturing them on paper.*
Not One of the Three
All of which reminds me of a dream I had a few weeks ago that definitely seemed mundane and a little weird when I lay in bed realizing I’d been dreaming – and contemplated rolling over and resuming my slumber. It seemed terribly mundane (and a bit unsettling) and I could see no point to writing it down. Indeed, it’s almost as if there was a little gremlin between my ears (no comment) actively urging me to just roll over and go back to sleep.
But I didn’t.
And when I read that dream in my journal the next morning…I sorta kinda got goosebumps.
I want you to have that experience as well. We are such amazing creatures and there is so very much more to us and our experiences than we realize, including the way we communicate with ourselves, each other, and even, perhaps, other realities.
The funny thing is, this was not one of the three topics I should’ve written down last night! Hopefully I’ll remember them tomorrow…
Reaching out.
Photo: L. Weikel
*I do know some people who’ve taken to speaking their dreams into a recorder or their iPhone, which they keep by their bedside. If that works for you, go for it. I nevertheless feel that the physical act of writing the dream out has a particularly unique ability to trigger our awareness of our psyche’s use of homonyms, etc. to get a message across.
(T-721)