the gift of receiving...
We think of this time of year as the Season of Giving. And when we think of giving, how do we imagine that? Giving of ourselves...our time...our presence and our presents...all such lovely ways to show another that we care about them.
Amazingly, our dreams step right in and challenge this, especially for the many of us who are accustomed to giving and yet cannot even imagine that they can be the recipient of someone else’s giving. It is so hard to believe that we even tell ourselves we are selfish if we, too, would like to feel supported, acknowledged and loved.
Each night our dreams come and want to give us a gift...the gift of our true selves...the gift of feeling loved, supported and connected...the gift of true relationship. They come to us to help us understand how it is we got so far away from who it is we truly are, how we came to believe that love and support can be for others yet find it so difficult to believe that same love and support can be there for us. True relationship is an open flowing conduit and it needs to flow both ways. Just as we cannot feel true love without the ability to feel our pain, to feel our joy without our sorrow, so it is that we cannot truly give of ourselves if we don’t have the capacity to receive.
Think of the small children in our lives. Do they have to do or be anything other than who they are for us to enjoy them, delight in them and love them unabashedly? No, we love them for who they are. And do these little ones shake their head and back away, feel that they don't deserve to be loved? No...they not only bask in the love...they expect to be loved! This is because they are still so close to soul...they need to love and they need to be loved...they know the sacred nature of giving and receiving. They live in the present moment of what true relationship is...to love and be loved...to see and be seen. They don’t question, as we do, whether or not they have to earn love...to love and be loved is more than a birthright...it is the very nature and essence of soul. Can you take a moment, close your eyes and take a breath into this...that each of us has our own inner connection to this love...a love and a connection that, as we learn to receive it, is uniquely and personally ours?
Mary Jo Heyen
Archetypal Dreamwork Practitioner
Author of the dream primer,
“Who are Those Guys?”
Dream sessions in person, via Skype or phone