Friday, November 7, 2008

Out of Control Dream/Dreamwork

Out of Control

Today, my mother is scheduled to die.
She will swallow a lethal dose of poison.
Her begging for death, her plans and schemes,
have finally paid off. She will join my father at last.
Before she goes, I want to race to the nursing home
to say goodbye, to say "I love you." But the roads are snowy
and slick. A good foot of snow, packed to ice in spots.
As I turn to the left, up a long hill, the car slides
backwards, faster and faster, slipping into the left lane.
I panic, stab wildly around with my foot, can't find the brakes.
Cars fly past on both sides. I slide out of control,
can't even steer into my own lane. Finally,
I find the brake, pump it enough to slow the car, and start
back up the long hill toward my mother's death.
I am afraid I'll be late. She'll already be gone
and all my love and goodbyes will stay unspoken,
sticking in the throat of my heart like tears.

Mary Stebbins Taitt
081107-1225-1b; 081107-1st

This is a dream I had this morning. To honor the dream and request further dreams, I have made it into a poem.

When I write my dreams down, I do it in the first person present. By doing so, I discover things about myself and my current situation. For example:

I want to say goodbye to my mother. I am afraid I won't get to say goodbye. My mother died in January 2007. I was not with her when she died. I feel sad about this. I cried about it a little this morning. I think every time I revisit it, and cry a little, I am healed a little.

I am out of control. I can't find the brakes. My life often, if not always feels out of control. I think this is my addictions speaking through me. My ADHD makes me always behind on everything, all the time. I feel overwhelmed on the best of days.

I am afraid I will be late: I try really hard not to be late, and sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't. ADHD again.

I am sliding backwards. Backsliding. I am gaining weight again and the holidays are approaching. I need to get my eating under control before the holidays get here!!!

I am going the wrong way. I am in the wrong place. This is certainly true because I am gaining weight, I also need to look at other ways where I am in the wrong place at the wrong time. I want to get myself headed int he right direction.

I believe dream messages mean more than one thing--it's the subconscious's way of communicating with the conscious mind. I believe we can heal and grow by paying attention to our dreams. And I want to heal and grow. Writing a poem from my dream is one way of dealing with it. Doing art is another.

Mom, I love you and miss you! Goodbye, beloved Mom, Godspeed on your soul journey. Say hi to Pa! I love you, Miss you! Goodbye!

OK, what is the right place? Where do I want to be? I want to turn it over, and listen for instructions. Meanwhile, here is where I think I want to be:

  1. lean and healthy and addiction free (one day at a time)
  2. happy and cheerful, enthusiastic, loving, engaged
  3. in the bosom of my nuclear family and with friends
  4. be creative
  5. working on my writing and art projects in an organized way so that I can bring them to fruition: Geraldine, Sissy, The woman who loved weeds etc.
  6. Moving toward being organized and tidy (reasonably so)
  7. continue on my healing journey toward radiant good heal inside and out. LOL!
  8. find a balance that pleases me. Release being such a taskmaster to myself!
What steps to I need to take to get there? One day at a time, easy does it.

  1. get back on track with my eating
  2. get enough sleep (order a blue light, stop staying up late!)
  3. make a friend locally. Nurture love and family, friends.
  4. continue working on my creative projects, but don't overdo it on any one day.
  5. avoid switching projects until one is complete, if possible! (Also hard for me)
  6. Work out an organizational plan that will work for me. (This has proved very hard.)
  7. work on Twelve &, wings challenges etc. (get into schedule/routine.)
  8. Try to relax a little about all this. Work at it EASY DOES IT, ONE DAY AT A TIME!
I'm feeling guilty writing all this because I have so much else to DO!!! DANG! OK, enough for now!

5 comments:

bluerose said...

Wow, what an awful dream! But it told you so much! I think the time you took to write this is very important and neccessary. Your subconscience seems to be yelling at you. Don't give in to that guilty feeling you had for taking the time to write this. If you do, it would be like telling your subconscience, "your not worth it". My councelor tells me that when I catch myself feeling guilty for things like that, or any other self abusive thoughts, that I should appologize to myself, and ask my "self" for forgiveness.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

OK, I just gave myself a BIG HUG!

Thanks!

bluerose said...

Yea! Give yourself one from me, too.

These are great goals. I think when you take time out like this to organize your thoughts, that you'll be more likely to attain them. Good work!

bluerose said...

I had a dream this morning that my right leg was 2 feet longer than my left, and I was having trouble balancing on it. I just reread your comment from a few days ago, on how hard it is to know how much time to devote to this, and how much to devote to responsibilities.
Obviously from my dream, you can tell I'm having the same problem with balancing my time ;]

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

Sometimes I think I am being self-indulgent when I work on my healing work instead of cleaning the house or doing laundry or other such things.

I hope you're right, God, I am feeling very depressed tonight!

Feeling balanced is very hard. VERY HARD work.