| DREAMS OF THE
HEART
How dreams connect us before birth, after death and beyond time and space
By Carol Davis
In the ancient dreams of our hearts we
remember that we are one. If, in our daily lives, we forget these deepest
connections with each other, our dreams will tug at us with reminders. If, in our
daily lives, we remember and honor these soul connections, the dreaming will reach across
time and space with gifts that illuminate and celebrate the sacred mysteries of
life. What do I mean? Here are three dream stories that will explain…or
raise thrilling questions.
On May 7th, while Colleen
was on vacation, she had the following dream that we titled, “Friendship of the
Heart.” Colleen is in a room with many people. She doesn’t know any
of them. The lighting is low, the way it is in some restaurants or at a banquet. She
furtively looks across the room and sees someone she recognizes. It is her
friend’s daughter Deborah who committed suicide several years ago. She calls
out. Deborah turns her head to look toward Colleen. And ah, she looks lovely, her
blond hair is curling softly to her shoulders and she looks happy as she strides across
the room to hug Colleen. “It was a real hug, warm and genuine”.
Colleen explains. Deborah affectionately tucks her arm in Colleen’s and says,
“Tell my mother that I’m all right.”
Colleen awakened feeling surprised and
happy that she had remembered a dream. She wanted to remember her dreams and yet she
was a little afraid of them. She had begun to explore her dreams with both the
longing of a seeker of wisdom and the human fear of the unknown. Like most of us she
has some control issues! However, her natural desires for love, wisdom and adventure
outweighed the fear. In the workshops she had attended, she was learning more about
the dreamworlds and the possibilities for bringing back gifts to share with others.
Colleen has a penchant for helping friends. She had been thinking about
them and their children. Her kind remembrances opened a door for Deborah to get a
message to her mother through the dreaming.
In her subsequent conversation with
Deborah’s mother, Colleen wondered why she experienced the dream on May 7th.
The date was not particularly special to anyone in the family. Deborah’s mother
repeated the date several times with no associations. Then suddenly she told Colleen
to wait for a moment while she went to get a page from an old day calendar that she had
posted on her refrigerator door. It was too lovely to discard.
“Friendship of the Heart” was the phrase on the calendar page dated May 7th.
This simple message from an old calendar seemed to sum up the message. A dream
message of hope and healing came through one friend to another. And a grieving
mother felt that her daughter had reached out in friendship from a place of healing on the
other side of life.
I know another mother who is eager to
share her story. Diane simply titles her dream, “my recurring dream—all
during my pregnancy”. She explains that this went on nightly at first, then
weekly. In her dream, she gives birth to a baby with a rare blood disease that
requires a “complete transfusion.” No one in her family is a match, in
fact no donor is found in her country. Finally, as time is running out, a donor is
found on the other side of the world.
She believed her dream was telling her
that something would be wrong with her baby. She was not surprised when her baby was
born with cancer. A tumor was removed when he was six weeks old and doctors believed
they got it all. Then bone marrow cancer was discovered. Not one doctor or
nurse thought her son would live. But Diane believed he would recover because in her
dream the baby is healed. The donor, “on the other side of the world” was
in Diane’s understanding, Divine Providence. Little Brian had 30 weeks of
chemotherapy with no side effects except that his hair turned red after each treatment.
Diane says, “My dream prepared me
for Brian’s cancer and dealing with running to hospital every day for six months,
then two times weekly for 3 months. When the doctors and nurses thought death,
I thought life and never wavered.” Today, Brian is a healthy young man
in his mid-twenties.
One last story for this reflection
comes from a waking dream. John was home doing chores while his wife was out doing
some errands. In the midst of his routine household activity, he saw a vision that
was startling and real. The police were knocking at his door. They looked
grim. He sees himself opening the door then sobbing with tremendous grief.
Vivid scenes of his wife’s funeral unfold. He tries to shake it off. He
is a practical man. He returns to his household chores. The waking dream
returns and he cannot shake it. He feels a sick urgency. He is a practical man
who is awake to his dreams. He thinks about how much he loves his wife. He
prays for her. In an act of the heart and imagination he reaches out to her in
love. The dream fades and he feels calmer.
A little while later his wife came in
the front door looking shaken and pale. She explained that while waiting for
oncoming traffic to slow down so that she could make a turn, she suddenly glanced into her
rearview mirror to see a large truck directly behind her traveling at a high rate of
speed. Even if the driver noticed her, at that point there clearly was not enough
time for him to stop before crashing into her little car. With a pounding heart and
a rush of quick activating adrenalin, she slammed her foot on the accelerator narrowly
escaping oncoming traffic and the runaway truck with the absent-minded driver. She
was shaken up and feeling grateful to be alive. She did have a question
though. She wondered what made her look up at her rearview mirror before it was too
late.
In the ancient dreams of our hearts we
remember that we are one. We are connected in and beyond space and time. This
truth comes to us in our waking and sleeping, day and night. We can speak with
departed friends and family, celebrate friendships of the heart, find hope and courage and
even save the lives of those we love. So, hug the people you love this day and
open your heart to your dreams that are filled with wisdom of the ages. Remember
these lines from “The Swan”, written by the poet Mary Oliver:
“…the path to heaven doesn’t lie down in flat miles. It’s in the
imagination with which you perceive this world, and the gestures with which you honor
it.”
Carol Davis, O.P. , MA, CASAC is a
lifelong dream explorer who has assisted Robert in many of his advanced programs.
She has a rich background in spirituality, addictions and trauma recovery counseling and
university teaching. She practices psychospiritual counseling and has led numerous
workshops of her own throughout the United States. She brings compassion and
creativity to the teaching and traveling with others along the paths of healing, love and
light. She teaches Dream School classes in the Albany NY area. Contact her at CarolDavisOp@worldnet.att.net
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