A show and tell dream

I woke early with a dream. We may indeed have a series going.

I am walking through a large, hilly city like San Francisco after a conference, making my way back to the hotel. Many people are walking in the same general direction. It is early evening, quitting time. I start humming an old gospel hymn to myself, the sweet, mournful tune, “My Jesus I love thee.”

I hear the tune coming from somewhere else. A young Latino man and I realize at the same moment that we are humming the same tune. We begin singing together in harmony, louder and louder until we are singing at the top of our voices, “My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine.” Neither of us remembers all the words but we improvise.

The young man is joined by his brother. I ask whether there is a taqueria nearby. They take me to a little taqueria and buy me dinner. I sit down to eat between the two of them. They are taking care of me. They are my guardians.

Thank you, Dreamgiver.

I was about to write about the interplay of the three main motivating forces in our lives, love, fear, and anger. I was about to say that if we are open to Spirit, love will eventually come to dominate. Fear and anger will stay with us but in their appropriate places, in their most helpful forms.

And now, after asking for dreams on this interplay, I have had two. The first was about a very individual expression of love, the creative act, the birth of a new project. This second one is about a more communal form of love, and fear and anger enter in.

It begins with the recognition of human connection. Two very different people, an aging white woman and a young Latino man, are singing the same tune. It is no accident that it is a Christian hymn. All my life the church has been a center of community. It is no accident that the hymn is about love.

I would normally be wary of young Latino men in a strange city but because we are literally singing the same song we recognize each other’s souls. My decision to trust them is not a conscious one in the dream. Rather, the shared song triggers a different instinct, to trust rather than fear. Love displaces fear. Just like Jesus said: “Perfect love casts out fear.”

Trust makes it possible for the brothers to reveal their true nature. They are guardians. They embody a positive form of the anger/resistance impulse, the Warrior. They are the protective brothers every vulnerable soul needs. They are such a Jungian archetype that it’s almost funny.  

I can tell you all this but the dream shows it. Dreams do this. What are your dreams showing you?