Later that day

Read the previous entry before you read this one.

Something about the way I wrote about the first night of the dream retreat makes it sound like entertainment. That night was, in fact, sort of entertaining, intriguing, relatively gentle, full of beauty. Above all, we felt Divine presence.

The second night, however, was downright rigorous. The Dreamgiver rather put us through the mill, asked things of us.

Several women reported that they dreamed so much they didn’t have time to sleep. Things happened in the night that interrupted but didn’t stop the dreams. Some had trouble going to sleep but the images began before they fell asleep completely. Anger flared in the dreams, hard truths were exposed. Joy, nakedness, circuses, high school, weddings, celebrations, cemeteries. Some dreams skirted the edge of death. Dead parents showed up.

I slept well the second night with no remembered dreams but now at the end of it, with everyone gone, I am tired, and not just because I’ve scurried around hosting and arranging and cooking. I feel like so much work has gone on--difficult, demanding spiritual, psychological, and communal work. It was a dream workout. Some left invigorated, some left calmed, some were downright exhausted. We sealed and smoothed the energy around the group before we left.

I don’t have the energy yet to clean up the remnants of our final feast—a thrown-together brunch that reflected the wildness and flavor clashes of the dreams: a rich, custardy puffed-apple pancake with maple syrup; one pasta with garlic mustard pesto and another with woods nettles and asparagus; leftover quinoa salad; sweet spiced tea.

But here is the thing. The dreams sharpened our perception of who we are, what our current spiritual tasks may be, and who we can become in the world, for the world, both as individuals and in community and alliance. There is so much work to be done. Women of spirit are needed to show alternative ways, to be different kinds of leaders. We are needed for healing and cleansing and repairing and creating, for generating life, for stopping destruction. Not that these are callings exclusive to women, but women must rise to the challenge in these times as never before. Hard times may be just ahead and hard times may have already begun.

Here is a dream image: Women are standing on a kitchen island. One is scrubbing out a stain on the countertop. The stain has political meanings and origins. The women have put water on the stain to soak it. They are working very hard. It takes time and it is almost impossible to remove the stain but it is slowly being erased. There is just enough progress that they can’t let it go. They have to keep on scrubbing.

Women know how to do this kind of work.