Dream Week!

When I woke Monday morning, I struggled to climb out of one of my classic stress processing type dreams that involved lots of strange creatures chasing me while I tried desperately to find the location of the final exam for a course I’d only attended the first day of the semester.

I was shaking and my heart was racing and I felt all fuzzy-headed.

Not exactly a great start to the day!

This morning, just before I woke, I was having a very different sort of dream. I’ll share it with you the way I learned to do dream work at Pacifica Graduate Institute, in the first person, present tense.

I am in some dreamy version of what is clearly my home. I come upon a door that I didn’t know was there. Reaching out, I turn the knob and the door swings easily inward. 

As I wander through it, I am amazed to discover two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a whole other kitchen. A BIG whole other kitchen! 

These new rooms are not flashy or trendy. Instead, they are spacious and generous and welcoming. And, somehow, they are miraculously a part of our home. 

Amazement is an understatement!

This morning’s dream has followed me all day and I was blessed to find some more insight into it with the help of a couple of dear friends.

First, a phone call with my art-sister and mentor, Julie Steelman. It just happens that we’re working on notions of something Julie refers to as Wild, Sacred Bounty. 

Questions like What do you dream? and What would it take to make it true? and possibly even How much would you have to invest to get it? are floating around in the land of Blossom and Roar. 

As we talked, Julie helped me articulate the deeper desire under the magical rooms’ spaciousness that appeared in my dream.

And, my Muse whispered the perfect way to create an image of it in my painting!

The second bit of insight came from Carl Jung, by way of a timely email from the delightful Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.

I’m thinking it may just be possible that who looks outside and inside, dreams and awakens!

In any event, my Muse has also chosen an earth eye for seeing outside and a winged, visionary eye for seeing inside, both wide open.

And, as is perhaps often the case, this choice feels both totally right and, well, way more complicated than I had planned!

But, there’s more paint for tomorrow!

For tonight, I find myself wondering what you’re dreaming of… what Wild, Sacred Bounty would look like in your world. (You can leave a comment below, if you’d like to share!)

And a quick reminder that, through August 25th, the Studio Angels and I will donate 15% of my proceeds from all art sales on my Fine Art Marketplace page to Grandmothers Against Gun Violence.

Which, come to think of it, is another of my dreams!

PS… In the land of Intentional Creativity, it’s Work-in-Progress Wednesday. The opinionated Muse, pictured above is definitely a #WIP! (Stay tuned!!!)