(as part of dream therapy you re-write the dream for an ending that you can live with or where you are the victor instead of the victim.)
My sister and I are sleeping in separate rooms when I hear a burglar at the door. I run to wake my sister who is sleeping as she always does, like an letter in an envelope. Her blankets are straight, folded very neatly at the top and nothing is out of order. She’s sleeping like a picture perfect princess. I giggle and think to myself, “How on earth does she sleep like that?” then I shake her to let her know we have to get out of the house. She jumps to her feet, throws the covers back to their original position. I notice the bed looks as if she never slept in it at all. I shake my head and we run to her window and climb out together. The sister who will be called Mia is down below telling me to jump and hurry because she thinks they’re already in the house. I’m afraid of heights and have always been but I know jumping is necessary. At the bottom Mia and I run into the field knowing full well we’ll have to fight off lions and wolves. Mia heads in first and tells me to stay close behind her. We’re going to the highway then into the city for help. As we pass through the field we don’t see any danger but we know it’s all around us. Several houses have a porch light but Mia senses they won’t help so we keep going. A lady approaches us and says she’ll take us only as far as the highway. Again sensing danger Mia denies assistance and takes us through the dark, overgrown field.
Despite sleeping her hair is perfect, her pink nightgown is without wrinkles and there’s not a drop of sweat on her. In sweat pants and a T-shirt I follow behind her leaving beads of sweat with my pillow assaulted hair sticking up to the stars. With each long leg revolution I wonder how she could look so pretty while fleeing for her life. How can she be so graceful at a time like this? But that’s Mia I thought, that’s the big sister I look up to, the one that matches perfectly, hair always done well and posture straighter than an arrow. There I am behind her knowing she’ll take us to safety. I should be afraid but I’m not anymore, my big sister is going to make sure we’re safe.
COMMENTARY:
As a child I was the one who lead my sister and who fought so hard to keep her from being hurt. I chose to let myself follow instead of lead. It would have been nice to be the little sister instead of feeling like I had to take care of her too.
It is not by mistake that I’d call her Mia. She was missing in action as far as depth, sincerity and kindness. The part of this dream that is actually true is that she slept like an letter in an envelope. When she got up you couldn’t even tell she’d been in bed. I was always considered frumpy compared to how manicured Mia was. I wasn’t frumpy, I was real.
DREAM Trust Love and Forgiveness Re-write-Friday, October 03, 2008-2:27PM EST
DREAM: Trust Love and Forgiveness Part 1-3
DREAM: Trust Love and Forgiveness Part 2-3
DREAM Trust Love and Forgiveness Re-write-Friday Part 3-3
Austin
Wow, that’s a lot of information. Your dream state seems to be catching up to your adult self though, I can only think that union is quickening the heart, nothing better than a prepared soul.
I do not envy your nights, but I do lean in and whisper into my own darkness…come with me, sister I’ve been through this field, I will walk beside you…this my light to lend.
With a Whole Heart.
@ Heather,
I laughed when you said that was a lot of information. Yes it is and trust me, my brain is **tired** of information. It would be so nice to just sleep and not have dreams with the so many details and so much switching around. What is written above wasn’t a dream at all, it’s the re-write to the dreams I had about being chased and escaping with my life.
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with dream therapy or not but what you do is you write down everything you remember about the dream then you re-write it to end the way you want it to end. It’s actually quite helpful.
The information load is heavy in my dreams all the time. I mean dang, they go on and on and on. They twist and turn, morph into something else and leave me more tired than when I went to sleep. I really hate dreaming but I like having some kind of control over them. I think dream therapy helps. If I’m too stressed to re-write the dream I’ll paint it out. The painting On The Eve of Something Beautiful is a dream therapy piece as is Three Birds and the painting called ONE (which includes a poem).
Thanks for commenting and assuring me that there is a way out of the forest.
sincerely,
Austin
Yes I used this sorta thing on my journey too. It does help, for sure. I still deal with sleep anxiety and insommina, it’s one of the last “things” that has not gone away. So, I paint all of it out all the time, and now, while dreaming I have taught myself to tell my dream self (before going to sleep) that if I need to pull out of something I look at my dream hands in the dream, and most times in the palms of my dream hands is the image I need to paint to resolve the issue my brain is dealing with…I call them my perscription dreams…all of those paiintings get done and sold quickly and they are always powerful. The faceless people started as a perscription, and evolved into a healing for my brain and many people who have bougt them have reported (with no information from me about me) that they have found strange healings happen to them after taking the paintings home and living with them. Intersting, right? after ten years of this happening A LOT, I have found that art that heals…keeps on healing, maybe even forever. I think that’s a gift from the universe for all our hard work to become unified and stop thinking of these issues as “bad” and see them for the brilliant survial skill that they are. We made it out…and we are not crazy. That all by itself is proof that we spilt in the first place because we were supposed to survive the experience and be healers for the world and ourselves. Just my thoughts.
Heather
Oh Heather, what a wonderful thought…..
“That all by itself is proof that we split in the first place because we were supposed to survive the experience ….”
I wonder how on earth I lived. I really do. The idea that I was supposed to live is kind of inspiring.
“prescription dreams”
I like that.
Austin