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T h e  W a y  o f  D r e a m s : T h e  O r p h a n

Chapter Four: Dreaming Together

 

 

 

 

As soon as Lara became firmer and learnt how to control her body, John began with different exercises for her. He promised that such exercises would help her remember, both school lessons and her dreams. She was drawn to the latter part, associating it with the bird she had once dreamt of.

She found the Recall Exercise, as John called it, quite light. Under his guidance, she would sit on the floor, close her eyes and relax her body pretending to go to sleep. Her upright position prevented her from napping, and John’s voice guided her through the process.

“Last night you had a beautiful dream with a green meadow in it, but you say you cannot remember now what was so beautiful about it.”

“Yes,” Lara spoke slowly. “I remember a green meadow.”

“I want to imagine that in your mind now you can see that green meadow. Describe to me its greenness,” John’s voice mimed Lara’s in tone and in slowness.

“Dark green on the edges, and light toward the middle...”

“Can you feel its scent?”

“Like wet grass at night.”

“So it is a green meadow in a night, right?”

“Right. I can see stars above”

“How big is this meadow? Like this room, like the whole house, like the garden, or much bigger?”

“Bigger.”

“And look at the edges of this big meadow. What lies behind the edges of the meadow?”

“A forest. Now I remember!” Lara opened her eyes. “There was a forest around the meadow.”

“Great that you remembered the forest. Close your eyes again. Describe to me this forest now.”

“Deep, dark, moving… Alive.”

“How do you feel when you look at this forest?”

“Wary.”

“Now look back to the meadow… how do you feel when you look at the meadow?”

“Good,” Lara’s smile reappeared.

“Good. And with that good feeling, look at your feet now. Tell me what you see.”

“My feet are bare and cold. The ground is humid and I do not know where to step in the dark. I am afraid.”

“No wonder that you may feel afraid with your feet not knowing where they can step. Look around your feet; are they in the meadow or in the forest?”

“I am standing on the edge of the forest, and the green meadow is right ahead. The meadow looks so peaceful.”

“If you were in the meadow, would your feet feel afraid of stepping around?”

“No, the grass looks cosy and gentle. I want to walk on grass.”

“Then, I shall ask you to do something unusual now. Look at the meadow in your mind, step out of the forest and step onto the grass.”

Lara gasped with eyes still firmly shut, but her body suddenly seemed relieved. She straightened up. “This is much better now, but this was not in the dream.”

“Yes, however, it is your dream and your meadow and you can do with it anything you like,” John quietly laughed. Lara beamed up at the idea.

“Now,’ he continued, “as you stand in the meadow, feeling the grass all cosy and gentle beneath your feet, you can look around. Is there anything special, anything different about this meadow?”

“No, nothing much. Just grass, and some flowers with closed buds at night. Nothing else.”

“Good. Take some time to enjoy the grass and look around. You may look at the stars if you like. Tell me if you notice anything unusual.”

Lara’s eyes shifted behind her eyelids. John watched her smile noting if it would change. It did not.

“Good,” he saif adter a while. “Now I shall ask you to turn your face to the forest, whence you came from.”

Lara stopped smiling.

“You can stay in the meadow on the grass as long as you like,” John assured her. “Just look into the forest.”

“Alright. It is there,” she muttered ruefully, “a forest.”

“Are you still wary of the forest, Lara?” asked John mildly.

“Yes.”

“Imagine, if you walked into the forest, what would make you wary?”

“My feet. They’re bare. It’d hurt,” she pouted.

“And right you are to be wary of hurting yourself. Who would not be?” consented John. “Look back into your feet now, standing there in the cosy and gentle grass...” Lara shifted her head as if looking downwards.

“Look upwards now at your body n the dream: at your calves… and your knees… the whole legs… the torso… and arms…. Are they dressed or not?”

“I’m wearing shorts and a shirt. White.”

“And feel that body dressed in white shorts and a T-shirt. How old is the body inside the white shorts and a T-shirt?”

“Ni… Three!” exclaimed Lara.

“And no wonder that a three-year old girl with bare feet would be wary of walking in a forest at night. You, however, are nine, right?”

“Right,” agreed Lara, still frowning.

“If you were to think,” he continued, “in a way that a nine-year old Lara would think, of a way to protect the feet of a smaller three-year old Lara what would you think about?”

Lara thought. “Well, little Lara’s got to find something to cover her feet with first...”

“Perhaps she can use something from around her?”

“Well, she can get some bark and tie it to the foot with grass,” thought Lara aloud. “Just like a shoe.”

“That seems like an excellent idea. Where can little Lara find a peace of bark and a long enough blade of grass?”

“She’s standing in the grass now, so she can take a handful of long blades, but for the bark, she must go into the forest.”

“Imagine to take a handful of long blades from the grass around you and hold them firmly in your hand.” John waited for Lara to finish the imagined movement with her hand. “Are you willing to approach the forest and look for bark?”

“Yes... but I’m still wary.”

“Then, feeling that wariness, step toward the forest and stop at its edge. In this way, you can look for bark and still be close to the meadow. Take your time to look for a piece of bark.”

Lara smiled and stretched her hand as if picking something from the ground. “Found it. Two barks, flat, right for feet.”

“Now, can you imagine to have tied the barkwith the leaves of grass already?”

“Wow, that’s quick! … Yeah, done.”

“It’s your dream and the time in it is yours as well. You can speed up or slow down things at any rate you want.”

Lara tilted her head unbelievingly, but still smiling.

“Now, I want you to imagine that you stand in your new shoes of bark and grass, and that you try walking around in them. Do they feel fine?”

“A bit hard, but I can fill them with soft grass.”

“Imagine then that you have already filled your shoes with soft grass… Do they feel alright now?”

“Yes, they’re soft. Now I can walk around.”

“Then, do try and walk around in the forest. Are you feeling wary?”

“No, I’m fine. Curious. I want to see this forest, but also, I want to go back to the meadow sometimes.”

“Good, you can explore the forest and walk back to the meadow whenever you like. Take your time. I will leave you to yourself now. Enjoy the walk.” John noiselessly left the room where Lara remained with her eyes still shut.

 

After a quarter of an hour later, the girl found the old man in the garden.

“John, what was that? The forest and the dream?”

“It was your dream, so I cannot know better than you what it was about. You told me it was about being three-years old with bare feet and wary of the forest. It seems that something happened to you when you were three, and felt vulnerable and wary. Now, as you are nine years old, you can find solutions that you could not when you were three. This is what we did. We introduced a nine-year old solution in a dream of a three-year old. Didn’t you enjoy it?”

“I did, I do. But what was the exercise? Walk in the forest?”

“Walk in the forest was one part of the exercise, but do you remember what we did in the beginning when you could remember only a meadow and that it was beautiful?”

“Yes, it turned out that there was a forest around it.”

“Excatly. You remembered a forest, moreover, it was your body in the dream that you recalled. It was a barefoot three-year old body dreaming that dream. Sometimes, when we have a situation with a question we cannot understand, we keep on dreaming the situation. Then, we forget the question but we keep on dreaming the dream of, let us say, of not understanding. Dreams sometimes bring back a part of the question we have forgotten. They usually bring a part of the answer to that question as well. By recalling a dream wholly – not only the meadow, but the forest and the sars, and all the tiny details in it - and by changing it in a way that is natural to the dream, we can remember the whole question and answer it.

“So, what was my question?” asked Lara puzzled.

“Metaphorically put, it was about being able to walk in a forest at night, I think. But I do not know what that metaphor means to you. Anyhow, it was your question, and your answer. If it’s answered, is it important to ask it again?“

“What’s a ‘me-ta-phor’?”

“A metaphor is a material image, usually natural, which we use to describe something non-material, something invisible and inside someone’s mind, like a thought – like joy, goodness, beauty, pain... For example, the sun can be such an image. ‘To reach for the sun’ does not mean that a person extends a hand to touch the real sun above, but it means to have ideas as beautiful as the sun and as remote as the sun, and that this person is trying to make them real. So, the image of the outer sun stands for inner sun of ideas.”

“But how is the forest ‘metaphorical’?”

“The forest is an ancient metaphor just like the sun. Nevertheless, each metaphor can have many meanings, some pleasant and some not so pleasant. Like the sun: it can mean something light, warm, beautiful, perfectly round, rhythmic like the day, but it can also mean thirst, heat, dryness, burning and so on. What was the forest like?”

“Like… Big, alive… dark… moving… I do not know.”

“Whatever it means, the forest, the dream in general, is a place inside you. It is yours and one might even say that the dream is you, the forest is you. How do you feel about it now?”

“Peaceful?” Lara cheerfully answered.

“Good. It seems that you answered your old question of the three-year old Lara, even if you cannot put it into words. Now, I want you to think about what we did, and try to recall every step we took. In the afternoon, we shall summarize this exercise of dreaming together and you will learn how to do it by yourself, without me.”

 

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