Lily of the Valley, Mary's Dream

With an exhausting cold, I retired to bed early last evening---and slept like a rock. I'm just now waking from much needed rest and sleep only to hear Keith's sweet dream. We rarely do dream shares, so I am perfectly delighted, of course. This is the dream I then shared with Keith (open to anyone's interpretation):

I'm watching a wide rushing stream flow. I climb over a short brick wall to get out to where there is a patch of earth on the waterfall's edge. When I arrive there, I find that the land is not really land but a bunch of caught branches and brush. I grasp at the earth with my hands but it won't hold me! I quietly panic but think to call out for help. I don't know if i actually do call out but there I am, back on shore with my oldest friends, Baba and Aaron, calmly walking toward me. They had returned to tell me code for crossing the bridge and getting into the dark, round tunnel. Baba was pleased that she got the password with her first guess. "It's Lily of the Valley", she said with certainty. How grateful and relieved I was for this gift from my New York friends. The password they delivered hit home for this lily of the valley as we get closer to passing through the tunnel, sadly leaving our beloved Pioneer River Valley behind.

Having shared our dreams, Keith and I sweetly wept in each others' arms. (Aw, I know.) We'll spend the weekend saying goodbye to more friends, but this time in Vermont. Even though we've honored our long-held boycott of Brattleboro since our friend Woody was murdered there, we're going to make peace with the town. We will meditate in the room where Woody was shot, connect with his spirit and both say goodbye AND invite him to join us on our journey. (Kind of cool how you can do that with the dead but not the living!)

It's perfect that the skies are gray, with us in their broad embrace. They will release their rains, reflecting the sadness we feel inside, feeding the trees who will then turn ever more colorful. One of my favorite things is to behold the brilliant colors under the great canopy of gray skies and the time for this is now, right now...

Meanwhile, may inner peace fill your heart and may beauty illuminate your day.

~Mary

Moon River: A Dream of Departure

This morning, I awoke from a sweet but slightly sad travel dream.

I am in the dining room of a house, and my friend Paul and his girlfriend Sarah are in the kitchen, laughing. (It's fitting that it's them since they uprooted and moved across the country last year, themselves.)

In the dining room, I am packing up mementos and objects into a box, and leaving some of them nicely arranged on the shelves of the room. As I'm packing, a version of the song "Moon River" (as recorded by the Innocence Mission, one of our favorite bands) is playing, and I am singing along, as are Paul and Sarah. As I sing, tears are streaming down my face.

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

---Keith