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Now that I live in a world where I hear cows (and roosters and horses) from my porch every morning, I notice things I might otherwise have missed, like this sign on the cattle scales for sale at the Co-op.  "You can't manage what you can't measure?" Well that's for sure. While my neighbors may look across their pastures and see beef and dollar signs, I am seeing fields of sweet-faced cows, the incarnation of calm, slowly chewing their cud, like a field of mystics contemplating the feathery haze of tall grass, the peace of a morning breeze, the lilting lament of a mourning dove. Things they can’t measure, and certainly are not trying to control. Just … ruminating. Belonging. Musically mooing.  I have to say, daily cows are slowing me down and helping me loosen my futile attempts to manage the Measureless. My current spiritual practice these days begins with the first cup of coffee, during which, regardless of everything else, I sit the porch, listen, and gaze. Sun rising over the treetops. Mooing. Crows overhead. Wind in the branches. For minutes at a time, my mind can become as gentle as a cow in a pasture. Whatever happens next, with the second cup – dreamwork, prayers, the daily plunge into existential panic over the morning news – the gazing is what really grounds me. For at least a little while. And during the day’s annoyances, fears, and outrage, gazing can bring me back, bring me back, bring me back. So may I ask – how do you keep your Seeker self grounded in the real world, tethered to the life?  As we learn to discern, it seems to me - and believe me I am no expert here, but this seems true – that to feel our way along in our lives, we allow an alignment to create itself in three dimensions
Some of the dreamers I talk to suggested ways of being present and mindful just enough to feel those alignments taking shape. For many of them, these practices are forms of prayer:
 Notice how most of these suggestions are not so much about doing something right or excellently , but about just being. Being open to being. Not trying to measure or parse or define or control anything. There is enough going on in the world to keep us ungrounded and reactive every single minute. May we remember to be alive to the Measureless these days, as we ruminate, belong, moo. Deep dreams to you, Laura ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Fall Dream Groups at Fire by Night It's time to sign up for dream groups! If you are moooved to join us for a season of dream exploration, let me hear from you directly at laura@firebynight.net. I have two open groups and will add a third if needed. (Established groups, you know who you are and we’ll carry on as usual.) All groups will meet by Zoom on 1st and 3rd weeks of each month, beginning the week of August 22 and running through the week of Dec. 5 for a total of 8 sessions. New Groups: Sundays 7:00-8:30 pm EST Thursdays 12-1:30 pm EST Groups are small (4-6 people) so let me hear soon! We’ll schedule a free 20- minute conversation to get to know each other and talk over your questions. $200 for the season. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~And of course, a picture book for you:Here's the classic tale of Ferdinand, the delightfully contemplative bull.  Click here to enjoy the story, read aloud with pictures and music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGu-EtFER0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cow photo credits: Thomas Oldenburge nsplash.jpeg ~~~~~~~
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Imagine this as your dream: It's early morning, you’re on vacation somewhere far away, maybe a town in Japan or Greece or Kenya . You’re just sitting in the park, watching the people, when suddenly a loud wind blows through like a freight train. You look up and see group of excited, wild-eyed strangers, and you watch in astonishment as flames appear, burning just over their heads. Then they start babbling. They look deranged, they sound drunk, and yet – you begin to hear, through the babble, one voice, with the lilt and language that you grew up with, your mothertongue. Maybe a gentleness. Maybe a phrase only your family said. Maybe how your mother used to sound when she talked on the phone with her mother, suddenly shifting into soft Alabama accents that rose from the heat and the honeysuckle generations ago. That sound is unmistakable, it echoes rise from some forgotten chamber of your heart. As you listen with your whole self, something in you lights up too. This is about you, a part of your story that seems bigger than you, unsettling, resonant, strange and familiar. And then you notice – everyone else around you is now listening to somebody rambling on in another language. Everywhere you see people standing amazed, just as you are. No speakers seem to be saying the same words. As you wake, you realize they’re all telling the same story. *** In a few days, this scenario – something like it - will be celebrated throughout the Christian world as Pentecost Sunday. While I love all our big wild Spirit stories, as a dreamworker I particularly love this one. Because that’s us! Pentecost is the liturgical feast day of the dreamers, those of us with our hair on fire, telling big wild spirit stories first thing in the morning. Some reality has got ahold of us, and we can’t hold back. We really believe it matters to tell our dreams, because the dreams are about seriously important things - being, belonging, becoming – and because what comes through my dream is also for you. In my dream, you can hear your gospel truth. There is lots to be said about the “same story” that dreams offer us— a story big enough to hold all our differences, flaws, suffering, grace, and glory. A story that assures us that we are known, loved, and led along the way towards our “individuation journey” as we keep turning into ourselves. Watch how this works: I’ll share a few dream fragments (from different contributors) about fire. Read through them slowly but not studiously. Notice if anything in these dreams - storylines, metaphors, feelings, mysteries - moves you. If it does, it’s yours: you’ll know it when you hear it. Just receive, and then we’ll see where it goes for you. *Fiery Violinist: I enter a dark house, and follow the music to an upstairs room where a young man is playing the violin at the bedside of a dying man. The violinist is playing with such intensity that the music turns to fire as he plays it. *Incensed Nun - I know a bitter, angry nun who keeps incense burning all the time. * Candle in the Freezer - I'm so worried about the dinner party I'm hosting: it's about to start and I'm terribly behind on preparations. Every time I open the freezer, I see a burning candle. Where did this come from? I'm amazed. *Arsonist at the Firehouse – I'm standing in an office at night. Across the street a firehouse bursts into flame. I see the silhouette of the arsonist slip out the side door. *Embroidered Fire - On the parking lot pavement I find a patch on fire: the flame is actually embroidered into the asphalt. If you felt some energy rising in one of these dreams, then stay with it. What is coming up for you, in your memory? Feelings? Is there an idea arising? This image is a picture of a part of you. Why might it be here, now, for you to see? What does it want to say? If it is disturbing, can you welcome it anyway, and be curious, let it explain itself a little? *** For me, fire is often about vitality of embodied emotions that can remain unconscious if I don’t see them in a dream. I like to see how other people’s fire dreams might move me to notice something new: the ironic cynicism of the arsonist, the creative passion of the violinist; the courage of the candle in the freezer. In these images I see how emotion itself can destroy, create, sustain, and bewilder. Today, I feel drawn to the fire embroidered into the parking lot. What an surprising image: it makes me feel that the whole world, even the ugly paved-over bits, are alive, could burst into flame or song, danger or delight. In what way am I “paved over” right now? How am I right now, like a parking lot, outside of the main event, useful, but …static and dull. Stitched down a little too tightly, maybe a little inflammatory in some way? And if I were in some way “embroidered with flame” how would that spiritual reality manifest in waking life? To play with this, I can try to embody it - put on some "fire" music and just dance in the kitchen. Notice what changes, how I feel, what arises. It's that simple. Dreams are really just parts of us asking for relationship. This Pentecost season, listen for your mothertongue flaming out to you from the noise. Catch the spark. Play with fire. Here's a story that says it better than I can: PICTURE BOOK FOR JUNE Here is the same idea, with pictures and music. The Man with the Violin Thanks to Donna the Children's Librarian!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCdZ8crFuA0 Based on the true story of Joshua Bell playuing incognito in the DC subway (Seriously, click it. These books are the best part of the newsletter. ) SUMMER AT FIRE BY NIGHT It’s the summer of Travel at Last, and I’m not running any regular groups because you people are all thither and yon, adventuring. (Me too, a little bit.) Instead, come to a Standalone Dream Group. These groups will be different from the intimate little dream circles we’ve always shared. We’ll use a 3-part plan for these 2-hour meetings: First we’ll work one dream together. Next, we’ll share dreams in breakout sessions, using projective group dreamwork guidelines and each other’s intuition and experience. Finally, we’ll reconvene for some further dream play as we individually explore our own dream through art, movement, and more. Dates: Tuesday June 21, 7-9 EST Sunday July 10, 7-9 EST Tuesday July 26, 7-9 EST Sunday August 14, 7-9 EST How to sign up: email me at Laura@firebynight.net New and ongoing groups begin in late August and run through early December. 8 sessions. $200. Usually we meet every other week, but some dreamers prefer a shorter season with weekly meetings. Contact me here if you want to put your name on the list, state your preferences for times, and I’ll be in touch with you soon. laura@firebynight.net. Help Needed. Dealing with tech is driving me nuts. I lost internet twice and then lost the draft and then lost my mind. I need a Social Media Dreamer Helper. Basically, a Hermes. If you are a dreamer who can help me grow my almost nonexistent social media skills, I'm looking for someone who wants to barter dreamwork for serious media help. Write me at laura@firebynight.net. (Because all I use is email.) Photo of sparklers: 10TV
Early one morning, as we drove from suburb into farmland, my friend’s dashboard emitted a worrisome DING and this warning appeared on the GPS screen:  Unverified Area? Like Brigadoon, Narnia, and wormholes? Caution, OK. And where are the dotted lines? This all sounds a lot like... dream guidance. So – how does dream guidance work? How do you actually let a dream help guide you in your waking life? Perhaps the surprise GPS haiku will help: let’s take it line by line: Confirmation of the present moment, in which almost everything that is going on is unknowable. We center down, breathe deeply, ground ourselves here. As David Wagoner writes in his poem "Lost," “Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known.” Unverified area ahead Every second, we inhabit the threshold between a world that seems recognizable, even predictable or controllable -- and complete bewilderment, utter mystery, complete unknowing. Aspects of this unverified area are called the “unconscious.” It is forever supporting and informing our waking world. Exercise caution while driving in these areas It isn’t easy to become more conscious of the unconscious. Dreams and synchronicities are just two ways we begin see the action of our unconscious. We also encounter challenges like eruptions of shadow, archetypal identification, and living in the grip of a complex. In “these areas” we learn to expect the bog, the fog, the both/and, the neither-here-nor-there. To navigate cautiously, we’re going to need something besides a GPS. The GPS is good at direction when we are on the map, but when we’re stuck in a persona or trying to integrate a shadow, we need something different. Dreams can help.  Use dotted lines for guidance Dream guidance is more like discernment than direction. It’s not “turn right, go two miles.” Discernment is about alignment. It’s intuitive and intelligent, instinctive and imaginative. Just as a compass helps us align our position with the cardinal points and a destination beyond the horizon, a dream can help us align feelings, thoughts, will, bodily presence, and soul with the vaster reaches of inner experience and outer reality.  What are our dotted lines? Dotted lines are the practices that help keep us both grounded in the moment and aligned to the beyond. Here are some examples and of course, all practices affect all parts of ourselves: In our bodies – walking, yoga, breathing, gardening, working with our hands In our souls – prayer, ritual, creating, play In our minds – learning, thinking, writing, innovating With others – eating, dancing, singing, serving, taking action In dreamwork – we have dotted lines for dreamwork too: basic practices that help us receive and respond to the healing and wholeness that the dreams offer us. -cultivating receptivity and journaling our dreams - remembering that every part of the dream pictures a part of ourselves. -trusting that the dream shows us both the problems we face, and creative responses to them. - knowing dreams can picture us where we are right now in our lives and in society. - watching for ways a dream will balance out our habitual waking attitudes with a richer, more inclusive vision we should integrate. - trusting that even the nightmares and demons are here to help us see something we need to understand about ourselves. - risking the richness of sharing our dreams with others by telling them to a trusted friend or opening them up in a dream group - and knowing that it is more important to receive and relate to a dream than to work out an interpretation. Dreams help us in the moment, but even moreso over time. Dream guidance can be very slow. Feelings, images, repeated themes and characters show up, shape us, change as we do. For example, currently in my dreams there is a serious young horseman with a big plan. He is the grownup version of a little boy in my dreams that got my attention over a year ago. As he begins so show me why he’s here, he offers me the energies I need to integrate in my waking life right now. So I am taking my time to know him – his careful intelligence, his deep purpose, his altruism and strength of will - as well as his latent foolishness - before charging off to accomplish my own big ideas. He’s a helper, and I appreciate him. OK When the GPS announced that I was in unverified territory, I smiled because I love this place so much. This place where the invisible informs the visible – just as the wind bends the grasses in the field, rustles the new leaves on the trees, lifts the roadside trash and brings the fragrances of spring through the car window, greening me heart and soul. Let this be a beginning and a reminder that dreams can help us be both alert and at peace, lost and never really so. Deep dreams, Laura  Things to Love: Poem: "Lost" by David Wagoner https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=31968 Your YouTube Children’s Book this month: The Red Book by Barbara Lehman Here is a little miracle of a picture book (Carl Jung isn’t the only one who wrote a Red Book). This one includes maps, plus a whole different kind of global positioning imagination. No words, just music. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0so3j5sFQM Climate Cafe at the The Resilient Activist The Resilient Activist is a rich resource for climate activists, complete with courses, resilience practices, climate anxiety therapists, and the wise and wonderful director Sami Aaron. Join us at the monthly Climate Café where I’ll be leading the group in some active imagination for dreamwork on Tuesday May 24 at 7 pm EST. https://www.theresilientactivist.org/event/climate-cafe-gathering-2/ More at www.theresilientactivist.org. My Dream Article for Spirituality and Health: https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/spiritual-dreamwork-a-case-study  SUMMER AT FIRE BY NIGHT
It’s the summer of Travel at Last, and I’m not running any regular groups because you people are all thither and yon, adventuring. (Me too, a little bit.) Instead, come to a Standalone Dream Group. These groups will be different from the intimate little dream circles we’ve always shared. We’ll use a 3-part plan for these 2-hour meetings: First we’ll work one dream together. Next, we’ll share dreams in breakout sessions, using projective group dreamwork guidelines and each other’s intuition and experience. Finally, we’ll reconvene for some further dream play as we individually explore our own dream through art, movement, and more. Dates: Tuesday June 21, 7-9 EST Sunday July 10, 7-9 EST Tuesday July 26, 7-9 EST Sunday August 14, 7-9 EST How to sign up: email me at Laura@firebynight.net New and ongoing groups begin in late August and run through early December. 8 sessions. $200. Usually we meet every other week, but some dreamers prefer a shorter season with weekly meetings. Contact me here if you want to put your name on the list, state your preferences for times, and I’ll be in touch with you soon. laura@firebynight.net. My little cousins came to visit, and we made a fine mess.  Seedballs! Flower seeds mixed into potting soil and clay, then dried into portable pods. You throw them here and there, and hope for flowers. The hardened clay holds the seeds dormant til the rain comes and starts the germination process. The potting soil gives the tiny plants a head start on nutrients til they take root. Brilliant! Tossing seedballs is irresistible fun. And with any luck, there could soon be hundreds of wildflowers beautifying the rough spots and feeding the bees. ****** Several weeks ago that was the beginning of a lovely letter about seedballs and dream sharing, but then, between the war in Ukraine, the ongoing pandemic, constant evidence of entrenched racism, the growing influence of autocratic suppression of freedoms here and around the world, and the dire new IPCC report, I ditched it. All there is to say: Whatever you can do to help, please do it now. You know how to give in so many ways. Let’s help each other revive our efforts. Let's do what we do best: write, sing, share, create, defy. Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, restore. Pray, seek equilibrium, keep heart and mind open, take care of ourselves. Especially, let's do our shadow work. Let's watch for our shadows, in dreams and in waking life, and take back our projections so that we can behold and embrace the difficult gifts before us. One more thing. Because dreams offer deep wisdom from the Source, always in service of healing and wholeness... and because any person’s dream awakens individuating powers in those who hear it... then by all means, let's start sowing dream seeds wherever we can.  -Let's tell our dreams that carry healing and wisdom, and explain why they matter. -Let's ask to hear other people’s dreams, and really listen. -Let's bring dreams into our families, our meetings, our churches, our places of discernment and decisions. -Let's volunteer to teach others what we know about the necessary wisdom of the collective unconscious in dreams. I’ve been hearing dreams about the climate, war, and suffering. Grim and beautiful, they offer a much larger perspective on our situation. Often, they conclude with a holy moment that deepens beyond grief, into collective tenderness and a community of quiet strength that shares both loss and hope. I trust that dreams arise from the divine essence within us, and that as we share them, they can help create the compassion and connection we need so much. Thanks for all you give this troubled, glorious world. Deep dream wisdom to you, Laura  Another of my favorites, for your delight and inspiration: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o316NPC6K68 
Make your own seedballs! Below is one of many YouTubes that shows you how. Plain old clay dug up out of the backyard works great, no fancy clay powder needed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tt1QrVTefo
Dear Dreamers,
A few years ago, a new word burst upon the internet, and we learned about hygge, or “cozy comfortable conviviality” – which summarizes the Scandinavian approach to surviving a long cold winter*. (And whoo, it’s been cold!) One great part about the hygge tradition that you get to read. A lot. 
Mostly novels, for me, but I’ve also been rereading some of my favorite picture books. Do you remember those truly wonderful children’s books? The ones that found you, and grew your imagination, and showed you something of your own heart? They aren’t just books: they are soul-makers. Whether they were read to us as children, or we read them to other children, or discovered them along the way, they live in us, shaping us like dreams do. And unlike some dreams, they are irresistibly sharable.
Here is a good one, given to my boys long ago by a friend who understood bookish delight for children and their parents. I’m sharing it with you here because it is a lovely story and because to me, it pictures some things to remember about dreams and inner work. Please oh please spend a few minutes letting the magic of this little story wash over you. Mole Music written and illustrated by David McPhail...Watch and listen: (7 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoa7AWer7iI This is beauty sufficient for the day, and you can stop here if you like. But, if this story were a dream, what might you say about it? Here are a few projections: In my dream, I see my little inner Mole soul, learning to align to the true Self, through the bliss of music and long years of practice. I feel a great tenderness for this part of me. My inner Mole is already mining the depths, but then receives a vision beyond my familiar territory that connects me to my core. I love the moment in which my inner Mole sees the violinist on TV, experiences the impact of the golden shadow, and follows that gold. I see the little Mole part of me persisting through the terrible early months of skronky screechy musicmaking. The racket nearly kills the young tree aboveground, but over time, my inner Mole learns to play music so beautiful that it helps the tree thrive, as well as the birds, animals, and people who gather near it. 
In my dream, I see that inner work is also inner play. Connecting to the music dominates everything in my inner world. (Jung call that tending the Ego-Self axis.)
It is true (also both sad and wonderful) that my Ego - or anyone’s - will never know the extent to which inner work and play makes such a difference in the outer world. It matters, but the outcome is not my concern (neither is the income, for that matter). This story feels like an invitation to be more open to what moves me with longing, creates divine discontent, and asks more of me than I imagine I have to give. It reminds me that whether my dreams are beautiful or terrifying, Mozart or Mahler, they are coming through the organizing action of the deep Self that creates exactly what I need to hear for the next day’s thriving. 
Mole Music reminds me that dreams do their work whether or not I recall them. And when I don't remember them, I can pick up a picture book or fairy tale ( odd ones are good) and let it be my dream for now.
Wishing you the comforts of good stories, deep dreams, and people to share them as you wrap up tight these cold nights - Laura
*About Hygge:
https://newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-year-of-hygge-the-danish-obsession-with-getting-cozy
Since you asked…”What is individual dreamwork like?”
Dreams are here to help guide your individuation journey; that is, to help you turn into the self you were born to become. It’s the most important work we do, because as we live from the place of deep authenticity, we become more compassionate and creative people. 
Individual dreamwork involves serious play and creative work to explore the life-giving but bewildering energies ...conscious and unconscious...that your dreams ask you to integrate.
When we come to a dream session, you bring a dream, or maybe several. You also bring an innate knowledge of what the dream is saying. I help you sense for yourself what is going on and why it's important. Listening for points of energy, excitement, and resistance, we explore your associations and symbolic dream language. We look to your waking life for relevant energies…we might re-experience the dream from the viewpoint of another character or image…we tend the emotions in the dream…we explore archetypal implications and repeated themes. I may make projections to see if anything sparks an “aha” for you. I'll offer some Jungian ideas that may help you orient to the dream world. You’ll learn to sustain deep connection with shadows, anima or animus figures, persona and ego identities. You’ll practice dreamwork techniques that work best for you as you work through ordinary dreams, nightmares, and recurring dreams, and you’ll find ways to relate with the dream's wisdom as it guides you over time. As a dreamworker, one of my goals is to teach you the skills to do more satisfying dreamwork on your own. I’m not a therapist, so we don’t step into therapeutic work. And if dreamwork isn’t really your thing, I can help you find other ways of spiritual listening. If you’re curious about personal dreamwork or spiritual direction, we can schedule a free 20 minute conversation. Email me at laura@firebynight.net and we’ll find a time soon. 
 Do you ever emerge from the haze of sleep with one tiny flake of a dream, maybe just a single image, phrase, or feeling? Me too. What about you? I hear a lot of dreams, but my glimpse into the dream world through your dreams is the tiniest shard of what’s going on collectively. I absolutely cannot claim that what I hear is representative on any scale. Still, I find it interesting that lately, many dreamers are telling me that they’re not recalling whole dreams like they used to. They’re reporting more fragments. And they are grateful for these, since they’re also remembering fewer dreams than ever. Fewer dreams, and more fragments. Same here. I'll offer a few fragments I have permission to share, and some quotations that help me value the fragments. Fragments: I’m looking out the window when the phone rings. When I answer, a deep, authoritative voice says, “This is Houston.” Immediately, it begins to rain. Nothing but a color: bluebird blue. I hear a sneeze so real it woke me up. I’m sure someone is in the house. That whiskey is for the cat. Quotation: “… I remember what the unconscious wants me to remember, and if it is only a fragment, it is because that was the most important message of the night.” Joyce Rockwood Hudson, Natural Spirituality  Personally I like dream fragments. They’re emphatic, perceptive, exact. Puzzling, like koans. Piercing glimpse into the mystery, reflecting like broken shards of a mirror. They’re like dream haiku, rather than epics. I appreciate their brevity. They keep me on edge, not complacent. Fragments: I see a blazing ball of electric lightning-fire. Now I’m waiting for the thunderclap. I know it might kill me. A woman with smeared eye makeup asks me: “Does something feel off in this house to you? Bad smell, or maybe a ghost?" “Mishap is necessary,” says a voice. Quotation: “The dream fragment is like a little poem capturing the theme and message of the much longer ‘novel.’ Do not ignore your dream fragments.” -Jeremy Taylor  Maybe we can blame our altered dream recall on Covid (as we do everything else these days). Maybe fragments are all we can manage? Maybe these little miniatures are like urgent Morse Code messages flashed from the unconscious, alerting us to something timely and helpful, even necessary? Whatever the case, we treat them with the same attention we'd give any dream: we name the feelings, we make associations to waking life, we dialogue with the images and characters, we create a mandala or start a collage. Fragments: Someone calls out, “Time for Holy Vocation Tech Drills!” The exhilarating feeling of leaping like a cougar, from the haunches. There is a pond which is also an eyeball which is also me. Quotation: "The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach." Carl Jung The delightful mosaic dragon at Nashville's Dragon Park is a study in fragmentary wholeness. Half of it is never to be seen! The dragon reminds me that anything we dream, remember, tell, know, feel, or imagine-- is only a tiny fragment of what is. Even a whole dream is part of the More we will never know. Wishing you memorable fragments of those deep dreams, Laura As always, I welcome the opportunity to talk with you in a private session. Email to plan a short conversation if you’re interested in learning more about how 1:1 dreamwork might be helpful for you. laura@firebynight.net
My cherubic sons are now big and hairy and out in the world: I love them to distraction and I’m insanely proud of them. Here at Advent, I’m thinking of them as I wonder where in the world I put the Christmas decorations after my recent move.  Where is the creche? I remember shopping for it after the birth of the Firstborn: that Advent, he was 6 months old, and a clear rival to the human glories of Baby Jesus in all ways but gentleness: it was obvious by then that our household needed a creche made of rock, wood, steel, or… Okay, plastic will do.  We ended up with a set of realistically painted plastic nativity characters: Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, plus shepherds, wise men bearing gifts, angels, a star, and plentiful livestock. Weirdly, the manger came glued to Baby Jesus. After recently giving birth I couldn’t bear the sight of that, so we pried off the baby and ignored the blotches of hardened glue stuck to his backside. Thus began my sons’ ongoing relationship with the creche, and with the Nativity story. Just as Mary and Joseph were seeking shelter in the story, so were these little figures. They camped on a tabletop for a year or two until we were informed the Holy Family required a proper stable, so we built them a rugged pole barn out of sticks and wire. As the years passed, we added boys and the boys added details. Moss, rocks, and pine straw. Beanie Babies and goofy sheep made of cotton balls. When Baby Jesus looked chilly in his swaddling clothes, we constructed a blazing campfire out of twigs, with flames of red and orange felt. Inevitably, firetrucks parked nearby to monitor the situation. One year Mary disappeared. “She is a bad mother,” announced the Secondborn. “She crossed her arms over her chest and won’t pick up her baby.” Good observation. We gave her another chance and tied Baby Jesus onto her with a makeshift sling, but he continually clattered to the floor. Months later, Secondborn spied a sweet ceramic Mary at the Dollar Tree with her arms extended and roses at her feet. With the help of a little modeling clay, “Good Mary” still holds that baby tight.  The pole barn was a convivial spot: the Wise Men came early and stayed all season, chatting at the campfire with the shepherds, who hoped there might be Cheetos in those fancy boxes. Long after Epiphany, the creche stayed in play, doubling as a showroom for the Matchbox cars or an outpost for adventures with trains, monkeys, and crocodiles in their plastic pond. When a few contraband army men showed up, the boys started calling it the Baby Jesus Fort. Hm. We talked about peacekeeping and peacemaking, the difference. What I’m looking for in my garage isn’t what I remember: the pole barn has mostly collapsed and the wise men’s hands have broken; Joseph’s lantern is long lost and most of the sheep have gone astray. I love these little figures, but what I really love is how my kids got into the story – and the story got into them – through play.  Which is the point I want to make about dreamwork: the way that those boys got into the Nativity story is a good way to get into your dreams. Your dreams, over time, offer you a glimpse into the story of your own holiness. They show you your shadow and your gold. Dreams help you love your warm animal self, shelter your shivering Divine Child, and hear those invisible angels who keep singing the nightly descant, "Fear Not." To see what’s going on in your dreams and how they matter, just play with those dreams. When you relate with them, with your whole self, bringing to their landscape your imaginative fire, your rascally monkeymind, and your heart that needs holding, you begin to realize how the dreams show you the story of who you are. Like Bad Mary, I’m sometimes the person who needs to loosen up and embrace simple tenderness. Like the shepherd, I'm a rube with a compelling, inexpressible vision. Like the Wise Men, I've come a long way great peril, bearing unusable gifts to folks who would rather just share a snack. Like the monkey, I will probably throw banana peels and wreck the mood, but I'm really happy to be here. Who are the inner characters showing up to play with your Divine Child? Some aspects of yourself will feel welcome, others not so much. But in the Baby Jesus Fort, there's room for everybody.  Wishing you merriment, peace, and good play, Laura  Dear Dreamers, Oh November. This is my favorite month, which, for those of you already blue with cold may sound odd, especially considering the delirious bliss of April and May, but for many Novemberish things I am truly grateful. Among them:  - The fragrance of the black trunks of rainlashed trees, the last golden leaves clinging to the twigs, the scent of wet earth beneath the branches, and the peaceful treesy sigh of autumn's dazzlement drifting into long sleep. - Also Thanksgiving, the holiday which appeals to us quiet people because the peppy ones are gearing up for Black Friday shopping and we can read our books in peace. Better yet,we might visit with the old folks after their sofa naps, our listening tuned more gently toward tenderness each year, if we are so graced. - And I so love the way November begins, with the gravity of naming those whom we have lost: for the many ways we might become more grateful for their enduring presence in our lives; and for the opportunities to continue those relationships in ways that surprise us, even in dreams, mellowing us all over time, with compassion and gratitude. Golden grove blessings, Laura  Last weekend in Jonesborough, home of the International Storytelling Festival, we had a Main Street event, complete with artists and musicians and many pumpkins. I was so inspired by the yarncraft that I went home and picked up my knitting. Once upon a time I made challenging things, even a Fair Isle sweater, but now I mostly make big rectangles. With one clever seam they become these elegant drifty wraps*, but I digress. Knitting a few rows helped me reorient to the task at hand - a long overdue process I call my Over Time Seasonal Review of Dreams and Waking Life.  The initial part of this practice is a read-through of all the dreams and journal entries over a period of time. I include what's been going on in the wide world, in my family, spiritual life, finances - there's a big list. The point of it is to see what I notice about the dreams and my life when I take the long view. Most of the time, the story I’ve been telling myself is very different from the story the Dreamgiver is telling me through the dreams. Eventually, after several more steps in the process, the review helps me reorient to a very different perspective about life and meaning. Often, what I see surprises me. An astonishing new story is revealed about what is really going on. If you’ve ever knit a Fair Isle sweater, or received one from an amateur knitter, you have a good metaphor for how this very important part of dreamwork works. Let’s say you read through the dreams of a season or a year. At first, this is probably how they come across:  Oooo. A shapeless shape…a random mess of colors not necessarily to your liking…loose and tangled threads…raw edges curling into an unresolved question. Yes, a read-through of my dream & life journal feels pretty much like this – the back side of someone else's complicated knitting project. But if you stick with it, watching your dreams, your waking life events and feelings, and the occasional synchronicities, you start to see the relationships coming together. Something might flip in your emotional, intuitive, symbol-and-metaphor perception, just as a knitter flips a piece from the messy, unintellible back...  to the AH! patterned front!  The relationship between what you see dream by dream, and what emerges over time can reorient us completely. At first, just looking at that dream in the moment, we may say, "Not sure about this, but something is coming together and I like the colors." Then, over time, as we learn to discern from the Dreamgiver's perspective we can see, “Oh - it’s a sock! With a pink cat!” Maybe as we stay with it, the vision becomes more refined, as we take in new dream details and some input from the waking world and we conclude: “Oh, it’s a Christmas stocking, and that creature is supposed to be a fox (the knitter said so). Then you can begin another level of dreamwork, sitting with what's needling you: My dreams and life events have knit themselves together over this season, revealing the odd, orginal hot pink foxcat part of me who marks the receptive edge where Gift, Giver, and Receiver meet, to celebrate the embodiment of the Divine in the world. What can the foxcat show me about my sacred essence? Am I called to explore the Christmas stocking part of myself, a carefully crafted container for lavish generosity in a season of Great Gift? Like that. Why? All those things we learn in dream groups and dream books and dream classes - they are all about this one difficult creative process of embodying more truly what we are, in service to the greater Whole, whether we step or stumble or foxtrot our way along. Practice: The vision is not always readily apparent, and like knitting, dream discernment takes some skill and practice. Rarely is it quite this neat and clear:  Still, if you want to get your mitts on this process, try keeping a dream journal that is a reliable resource for you. Include the four basics for each dream: 1.Date 2.Title 3.Dream narrative, including feelings in the dream 4.Notes on life context. You can download my free “Field Guide” for starters, and also refer to the journal templates on the Resource page. When you review your dreams, you won’t see a seamless whole. There is far more mystery than consciousness can take in. But you will begin to notice themes, evolving characters, recurring settings, and hints about where the Dreamgiver may be leading you these days. You may begin to trust that when you slip a stitch, change colors mid-row, or drag those ugly floaters across the back – in dreams or in waking life -- there is some sort of pattern going on behind the visible mess.  Thank you and deep dreams, all. Laura *Some of you are wondering! See https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/soft-kid-wrap Photo Credits:
Most of these are original works on knitting websites: Malabrigo Caracol: The Loopy Ewe FibreSpace.com Knitfreedom.com (2) Fringeassociation.com yunyingh.com Fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wars, and still… maybe forever… the pandemic. Systemic racism. Political differences turning to vicious outrage. Global scale refugees fleeing violence, political chaos, and environmental disaster. The erosion of the social contract. General disconnection, isolation, fear, and anxiety. These realities we cannot miss, but it’s tempting to ignore and deny them, which would only make them worse. Yet what can one person do to help in the face of all this upheaval?  I certainly don’t have any answers. But of course I wonder what the dream source is offering to our collective wisdom. As I listen to your dreams, I hear some similar themes that give me hope. I hear the theme of a sobering optimism, and I see some images that picture how we might actually live into that kind of realistic, grounded hope. It seems to me that the first step is simply to share these dreams. With permission from the dreamer, I share this one: Battle and Feast A battle is raging in the sea. It is the classic apocalyptic scenario of Good vs. Evil. Archetypal characters from ancient and modern myth are fighting fiercely. Darth Vader with his faceless Storm Troopers battle Harry Potter and the heroes of Gryffyndor. Luke Skywalker, Anakin, and Dumbledore clash with Voldemort, Darth Maul, and the Deatheaters. Winged centaurs join the fray while Dr. Who gets injured and is taken prisoner. Suddenly one of the white-clad Stormtroopers separates from the battle and rips off his helmet. He is Finn, who joins the Resistance and carries the limp Dr. Who to safety. There in a green meadow, the Good Guys laugh and celebrate what feels like a great victory. Maybe they hope this somehow turns the tide of battle. Suddenly, a woman appears – a crone, bearing a staff, her face and body draped in a cloak like sparkling silver mist, and she intones in a commanding voice: “HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT BABETTE’S FEAST!” Instantly the scene shifts and now there is a picnic, outdoors, with beautiful food. One of the women at the table says, “We let it happen. We let it end. I thought it would always continue, but now it’s only once a day.” The people eat. There is a profound, pervasive feeling of sorrow, and at the same time, celebration. This feeling lingers into waking. The dreamer shared this with her dream group, and everyone in the Zoom circle was moved. The more we explored what it brought up for us, the deeper and more profound it seemed. Consider how it moves you. I want to take as my own guidance the feeling at the end of the dream: Keep the feast, with sorrow and joy.  While all dreams are for the dreamer, and about the dreamer, many dreams are a feast to be shared. We all learn and grow from the deep Wisdom in each other’s dreams. But there does seem to be a special category, and the dream about the Battle and the Feast is one of them. These are dreams from the collective unconscious, and they are truly needed by the rest of us. They offer guidance and wisdom and advice. A measure of comfort. A perspective of realism and hope. This dream is so powerful because it is ultimately so simple and hopeful. Yes, we are in a cosmic battle, we fight for values, ideals, for people, and for the very the earth that keeps us alive. It is a desperate situation, yet we must help each other cultivate openminded curiosity, trust, and a hopeful heart. Just keep the feast.  On a personal note: I moved! After nearly 40 years in Nashville, I now live in Jonesborough, a little town in East Tennessee, where I enjoy family…mountains...and a much gentler rhythm. I miss my Nashville people, but I don’t miss the traffic and the general hustle. Meeting dreamers on Zoom is keeping me busy, and as soon as the screen is up on my new porch, I’m open for in-person dreamers. And stay tuned - I’m scouting out a place to offer dream retreats once the pandemic eases up. Thank you and deep dreams, all. Laura Photo Credits:
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