a lover's aubade...
It is true that most of us have woken up from a dream with unsettled feelings…of loss or loneliness…even more difficult feelings…of pain…of fear…the heart pounding kind. That’s not an easy way to come back to waking consciousness. That’s not an easy way to step into the day with the residue of a challenging dream clinging to us. When we work with our dreams as part of our spiritual practice, we don’t want to shake off these feelings. We know they come with a special healing medicine for our soul and we want to explore them more deeply to find the very personal teaching there for us.
And I hope that it is also true that most of us have woken up from a dream with a different kind of feeling…a different kind of heart pounding…the kind that comes back with us to waking consciousness with the embodied thrill of loving and being loved…of seeing and being seen…of being in delicious connection and relationship.
“…leaning on a split rail fence and a young man touches his forehead to mine…I go weak in the knees.”
“…in a crowded room, a wedding about to begin…and an orgasm trembles through my body. I look down and see I am wearing a wedding dress and a beautiful man takes my arm and says, “Let’s begin.”
“…and the front door slowly opens and a woman is standing there. She asks, “May I come in?” and though I feel some fear I nod. She lifts her hand to me in the gesture of a pinky swear and I feel her tenderness for me.”
To awaken with the rhythm of these dreams coursing through our heart and our body is to awaken with a special kind of song…an aubade…a lover’s parting dawn song for a night that ended too quickly. This is the song of the inner lover who doesn’t want to sing us to sleep with a serenade. This lover wants to sing us awake with an aubade…who invites us to carry the images and the feelings of this love song in our heart and into our day.
(image by Raul Colon)
Mary Jo Heyen is a Natural Dreamwork Practitioner working with clients throughout the country and abroad in person, phone or Skype. Learn more about her work with dreams at www.maryjoheyen.com or www.thenaturaldream.com