May 2017

May 31, 2017April 15, 2020

A Special Dream

In my blog titled “Dreams” I wrote about how I have become familiar with many aspects of Jungian theory, including Carl Jung’s ideas about dreams. And about how recording and trying to learn from my dreams has added greatly to my life. Rather than approaching dreams with the idea of “interpreting” them, it’s better to ask yourself “What might this dream be trying to tell me about myself?” Among other things, dreams can provide direction and give assistance during difficult or confusing times. As one writer whose writing I admire said “Dreams are our friends.” Dreams provide a window to the unconscious by bringing to consciousness aspects of ourselves of which we need to become aware.

I’d like to share with you a dream I had some time ago that helps to show how dreams add to our conscious awareness. I had been feeling kind of down and lacking in direction. Then I had this dream: I go in the basement and am surprised to see a bunch of cats living there–at least 20 adult cats. At first I’m concerned, thinking the basement isn’t a good place for cats, they need to have sunlight and room to run. And since I did not know they were there, I wonder how they have obtained fresh water and sufficient food and I worry they will be sick. But I see that is not the case–they are healthy, their fur is clean and glossy, and they’re purring with contentment. And they all seem to enjoy each others’ company.

Two things cats can symbolize in dreams are health and the feminine. Therefore, I found this dream to be reasurring; in a way it was telling me that even though I had been feeling down on a conscious level, within my unconscious there were positive things happening. Being in touch with the feminine aspect of myself which the cats symbolized reminded me of qualities such as gentleness and nurturing. The basement in a dream often symbolizes the unconscious, so having all those healthy, purring cats in the basement in the dream provided me with reassurance that things were well in my inner life. And I did feel better outwardly because of the reassurance the dream gave me through its symbols.

May 15, 2017October 4, 2017

Acts of Kindness

I love my mother dearly. She is elderly and lives in an assisted living apartment a few miles from my home. Most Sundays I bring her to my place for an afternoon visit. She has told me she enjoys the drive and the change from her usual routine and surroundings, and she especially likes to see and pet my cat. Although my mother is able to walk with a walker, for longer distances we use a wheelchair. Today as I was pushing the wheelchair toward the front door of the apartment building where I live, there was a mom, dad, and little girl coming out of the building. When they saw us they made of point of waiting so they could hold the entrance door open for us, and we thanked them. Then, after our visit when we were leaving to take Mom back to her place, a young man who was outside saw us coming and quickly walked to the door to be there in time to open it for us, and again we said thank you.

It’s special to see and be the recipients of such acts of kindness. They are day brighteners. Often we see or read about incidents where people hurt each other, ranging from violent acts to being inconsiderate. But the thoughtfulness demonstrated by the people today shows that caring for others definitely exists. I sometimes get frustrated when I’m walking and in a hurry and someone cuts in front of me or people are walking slowly in the middle of the sidewalk looking at their phone instead of staying to the side. Although some people’s behavior shows them to be selfish and/or impolite, others appear to be oblivious of their surroundings. In a way, being oblivious is a form of selfishness too. The helpfulness of the people toward my mother and me today, however, proves that “random acts of kindness” are alive and well, I’m happy to say.

May 15, 2017October 4, 2017

Synchronicities

In my post titled “Unlocking Gifts,” I wrote about the synchronicity of a man finding and giving me my car key that I had dropped in the snow and how it symbolized for me the unlocking of my need to write this blog and share what I write. I would like to share some other synchronistic experiences I have had. One day my car wouldn’t start, an unusual occurrence I’m happy to say. This happened during a period of time when I was having trouble being motivated to accomplish some things that I knew I needed to get done. Again, there is no causal connection but the car not starting symbolized how I was feeling during that time, my low energy. Even though I was aware I needed to find a way to get at certain tasks, the symbol of the car not starting served as a beneficial reminder.

Here is another synchronicity. I recently saw that a flower was blooming on a house plant I have had for many years. It is a peace lily plant that was a gift at my father’s memorial service ten years ago. It continued to have flowers at first but gradually it stopped blooming. It’s an attractive house plant without flowers too. But what a fun and pretty surprise when it bloomed again after not doing so for several years. And it happened at a time when I was feeling positive about some things happening my life, some times where I felt I was growing personally.

As these examples show, synchronicities can serve valuable purposes in our lives. The first one reinforced a reminder I needed in order to move forward. The second seemed to symbolically support some positive things that were happening in my life.

May 15, 2017April 15, 2020

Dreams

Many years ago I was going through a difficult time and decided I might benefit by meeting with a therapist. It was during our work together that I became familiar with Carl Jung’s dream theories, and my work with the therapist included working with my dreams. Prior to that I had not thought very much about my dreams. I might have noticed if a dream was unusual, but I never thought of dreams as have meaning or a purpose. I also didn’t remember having dreams very often. Since then I have kept journals where I have recorded my dreams as well as my thoughts about and associations to aspects of my dreams. I have found this to be very helpful and I encourage people to consider doing this.

There are various theories about and approaches to dreams; I believe the Jungian approach is the most valid. Many books have been written by Jungian analysts about dreamwork. An author whose writing I respect is John A. Sanford, who was a Jungian analyst and an Episcopal priest. In addition to being very knowledgeable about Jungian theory and having worked with thousands of dreams in his therapy practice, Sanford, who passed away in 2005, had the gift of being able to express concepts in clear, understandable language. I have read and re-read his books and highly recommend them to you. They include Dreams and Healing, Healing and Wholeness, and Dreams–God’s Forgotten Language.

I don’t want to give the impression a person can learn to understand the meaning of her or his dreams simply by reading a book. But it’s a starting point. Working with a capable therapist and/or participating in a dream group facilitated by a capable therapist would be very helpful. Just as each human being is unique, the dreams he or she receives are unique to him or her. Although there are some dream symbols that tend to have universal meanings, such as the ocean symbolizing the unconscious and a snake symbolizing wisdom, the meanings of images in dreams are often based on the dreamer’s associations to the images, and those associations are based on each person’s life experiences.

May 11, 2017October 4, 2017

Unlocking Gifts

Something occurred a couple of months ago which I found to be meaningful. I had parked my car on the street in front of my daughter’s house where I had planned to leave it for her to use during the day while I was at work. I would take a bus to work from there. It had snowed the night before and there were several inches of fluffy snow on the street. I was holding the keys to my daughter’s house and was also holding my car key in the same hand. I got out of the car and opened the back car door to get my purse and suddenly I noticed that I was no longer holding the car key. I didn’t think I had set it down but I searched the car seats, my coat pockets, and my purse, and the key was nowhere to be seen. My daughter came out of her house to help me look for the key and she too didn’t see it. I also searched in the snow in the area where I had been, just those few feet beside the car. Then I heard a horn honk and saw that a snow plow was coming our way to clear the street, the driver sounding the horn to tell us to move the car. I walked to the driver and told him what had happened and since I had had the key just a few minutes ago we should be able to find it. My daughter and I continued to search to no avail, and then the young man who was driving the snow plow walked to where we were and made some suggestions of where we might look, such as between the seats. Then he looked in the snow and to our wonderful surprise, he found the key! We moved the car and he cleared the street of snow and I walked to the bus stop.

I found myself thinking about what had happened from time to time during the day and thought about it on different levels. How nice it was that the man took a few minutes to help us when he didn’t have to and when it delayed his work. So it was special on that level. And I also thought about it on a more symbolic level. I have felt a calling to begin writing a blog for a long time now, but I have been stuck, not able to get a sense of what I should write about, having many excuses of how difficult it would be to add yet another thing to my busy life, and so on. But I wonder if losing and then being given the key on that day was symbolic of finding the key to starting my blog. A key unlocks things, and I hope and pray that the part of me who knows it matters that I write has been unlocked. It feels like it has. A key also starts car engines, making it possible for a person to travel to many places. Symbolically, therefore, finding the key that starts one’s car opens up new horizons so to speak, and the expression “open new horizons” implies exploring and possibilities and stretching oneself. I think it’s also significant that the key was found by someone I do not know who was willing to help. That man seems to symbolize the positive masculine aspect of myself who is a part of who I am and who provides assistance to me. Carl Jung writes about synchronicities which are meaningful acausal coincidences. My losing my key and a helpful man finding and giving it to me is one of those meaningful and thought-provoking happenings. The key was a gift from a stranger who unlocked my need to give, and I’m giving you my words in this blog.