How sweet to be a Cloud/ Floating in the Blue/Every little cloud/Always sings out loud!
How sweet to be a Cloud/Floating in the Blue/It makes him very proud/To be a little Cloud!
-Winnie the Pooh, by A.A.Milne, 1926
This fall I’ve been taking a Zen Photography class. Each week the assignment nudges us closer to images we are drawn to, not to merely stay detached but to take in the experience, the vitality, the energy of the images we snap, bringing them to life. One week, we are instructed to take “bad” photographs. People photographed their heaping trash receptacle, their sink drain with bits of vegetable peelings, the wet curb with debris. The class concluded that there were no ‘bad’ photographs, there was a beauty and presence in the ugliest of images.
Hence, is a parallel to our dreams. Rather than judge our dreams categorically as ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ in Natural Dreamwork we bring a sense of curiosity as we step back into the dream and see what the experience and images bring to us with a sense of beginner's mind, without preconceived notions. As my mentor Mary Jo Heyen would say, and I wholeheartedly believe, all dreams come in the service of healing.
Going back to photography, if you take a look at the picture above, of the billowing clouds and blue sparkling water, take a moment… ask yourself, what feelings does it evoke? As you feel into your body, do any sensations arise? Does the image conjure up memories? This was taken at Stoney Creek State Park in Michigan, a park I have been to a dozen times, as a young woman, a long-distance runner, I would train here by running the 7-mile circumference of the park. Today, I am sitting on a bench taking in the lake and majestic sky, entering the experience of being here, feeling the tranquility in every cell of my body.
Dreams can be approached in this similar way. I had a recent dream of a large black man, smooth caramel colored skin, naked who is having sex with me. There is no bed, we are on a wooden floor and I am concerned I will get hurt or be uncomfortable, but his largeness and tenderness cradles me from the floor and any discomfort. The sex turns into dance-like movements with me following his lead.
Then I am with a group of people who bring up the topic of dreams and I excitedly share the dream of my beautiful black man. In Natural Dreamwork, I slow the dream down and re enter it seeing and feeling the largeness and tenderness of the Other, the support of this black lover. It is visceral, the exhilaration of being with him, him with me, this mutuality, and sense of being held. Similar to the photo image, I feel the exhilaration in every cell of my body. It also conjures up memories of taking ballroom dance and being chastised by the female instructor who said to me ‘“how do you expect to be led when you want to lead?” and learning to let go and follow, a huge learning curve for me. In this dream, like my dance lesson, I am allowing myself to follow the lead.
The book for our Zen Photography course, The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori offers a guided exercise to become more connected to image. Though it is for photography, it is appropos for our dreams as well. Imagine yourself entering the image, becoming part of it. Be aware of how it feels from the inside. Are visceral feelings evoked? Do you feel nervous, excited, relaxed? Just keep seeing and feeling without judging or analyzing. – Loori, p. 104 From a Natural Dreamwork perspective, images have a healing potency all their own. Spending time with them brings our dreams to life and offer us dream medicine.
