the girl in her potency...

Dream - Night, in an unfamiliar house, with three other children. A monster is coming. We are running around getting ready. One girl is brave and runs into the yard and then she yells that she sees him in the corner of the yard. I am standing near her and can barely make him out in the shadows. I run in the house and get handfuls of pink gum balls. I throw some in the direction she says and there he is!  He is a giant of a man. The gum balls incapacitate him and he falls to the ground. But it doesn’t last, he gets up and comes closer. Everyone takes gum balls and we all throw more. Now he’s really down. I hope we don’t run out! We all get up close to him and the other kids place gum around him and I put a piece in his mouth. That ought to hold him.

Who is this girl who comes in all of our dreams? This little girl who, for me, defines the heart of the girl…our soul…who is everything that we have been separated from in ourselves…the truth of who are before we were wounded and the connection was damaged. In this dream…the girl…the soul’s capacity to be in relationship.

The girl comes to teach us…help us remember…heal us…and return us to our true selves…our soul selves and our capacity to feel everything.

There is a scene from the film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Hushpuppy is afraid, running from the ancient aurochs…and then she does something remarkable. She stops and turns towards them. There is something very potent in this moment. She may be no less afraid and yet…something in her causes her to turn towards…and in that moment she and this great beast recognize each other…and the auroch bows to her and she says, “You’re my friend kind of.”   

This is not a moment of power…this is a moment of potency…of soul recognizing soul. This potency…our soul’s birthright…is our willingness to be in our vulnerability…and stay…and feel…again and again…and we heal ourselves and heal our world…in “a heart so raw and tender that even a mosquito landing on it causes great pain”?  (Tibetan teaching)

What can a world do to the vulnerable heart that doesn’t turn away…the heart that turns towards...in its vulnerability and  knowing that it has the capacity to feel it all?

(Image from Beasts of the Southern Wild)

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