Daily Loaf

“Dear Dream Momma, I have been a member of a dream analyses group for 10 years and I am half Norwegian, my mother being completely Norwegian and with many relatives in Norway currently. Here is my dream:

I dreamt my mother and I were together and we met my father, who appeared to be with a younger woman. At first my inner reaction (towards the woman) was defensive and “who are you”? As the dream progresses I realize she is some kind of companion/friend/ soulmate.

We are invited (mom and I) and we go with them to this place, like some magnificent hotel, far, far away from anything (not earthly or earthbound). It has a golden/glow/light to it. As we enter, so do others and they all seem beautiful, happy, laughing, serene, at peace. This man seems to be Dad, (but more evolved, “together”, comfortable in his skin). There was talk of what we would be eating….beef vs fish. He said it would be fish. It was understood we would leave and come back later for dinner as they the others would rest or take some sort of break. It did not make sense to me to leave as it was so far away…..and then to come back for dinner?

My mother and I drove away in a car, it was invisible, but a convertible. wind was blowing through our hair. it wasn’t like driving a car, it was like flying or moving through space and there was an ethereal feeling. Thank you.” (sic)

I’d like to remind you and my readers about a big-time rule in dream interpretation. Rule number one is: Don’t literalize the dream. This rule seriously applies to this dream. So, if we follow that rule, what have we got?   Read the rest of this entry »

Dream Momma,

I woke up after a dream about Manjushri. I only remember that I awoke not happy he carries a big sword.

First I’d like to enlighten the readers as to what and who Manjushri is so my interpretation makes sense.

Manjushri is seen as an emanating enlightened being in the Buddhist tradition. He is associated with wisdom, doctrine and awareness. He is also the meditation deity who embodies enlightened wisdom.

Read the rest of this entry »

To think of you brings tears less caustic
than those the thought of death brings. Perhaps
we meet our heaven at the start and not
the end of life.
—John Updike, from “Peggy Lutz, Fred Muth” (2009)

At Easter our family turned toward jellybeans. We also had baskets with colored eggs, chocolate rabbits and, sometimes, flowers. But it was the jellybean hunt that caught the imagination and energy of our four children as they hopped through the rooms, looking on the windowsills, along the bookshelves, under the phone. Through the years they got faster and faster at finding them — heaven help any youngster who joined them in the chase! The visiting child would stand in the middle of the floor, spinning like a weathervane on a gusty day as our kids raced back and forth filling their little baskets, triumphant when they found “difficult” ones, like a licorice jellybean on a black piano key.

Even to us, this happy shrieking sometimes sounded barbaric, as we contemplated the dark catastrophe of the crucifixion and resurrection in the midst of this pagan revelry. The jellybean, being a symbol of a symbol, is pretty far from the original story. The egg symbolizes rebirth, the jellybean symbolizes the egg; we’re getting close to stem cells here. Read the rest of this entry »