Yesterday at Jane’s Active Dreaming (and shamanic dreaming) workshop, an Aussie woman recounted a recent dream: She described a pastoral scene, with green fields, spotted cows, a lovely stroll. Then suddenly the ground gave way, the fields tilted at a sharp angle ahead and she fell a long way down.
Jane asked each of us in the circle to imagine ourselves in that dream and to share how we felt. I immediately said that my stomach knotted as soon as the woman said that she began to fall, and that I couldn’t (wouldn’t?) follow the dream any further than that point. That knot stayed with me through the evening… and possibly through the night – even though Jane suggested that we incubate our dreams; invite our dreams to stay with us until our waking hours so that we could remember them. And, more relevant to me, ask for dreams of healing.
Something must have gone awry with my pre-sleep request.
Because I fell today. Not very far, but still: I Fell. On the path along the rice fields between the pool (morning swim, yay!) and yoga studio. I must have stumbled on a wet or gravely patch. In an instant, Alexsandra was crouched by my side as I momentarily writhed in pain and shock. Tears welled up in my eyes: That was my first fall, I told her, since my accident.
I told Alexsandra that I thought I’d heard a little crack as I landed. We both laughed at the thought that perhaps this minor fall helped knock me partly back into alignment!
With a stinging scab on the underside of my right arm below the elbow, and a soon-to-swell-and-bruise left knee, I followed Alexsandra to the studio – where Linda recoiled at the sight and fetched alcohol and cotton to tend to my wound.
OK, I knew it had to happen eventually. I’ve tripped, stumbled, caught myself in time. But a bona fide fall, here? In the middle of the picturesque rice fields of Ubud?!
Then again, why not & where else?
Aside from which my angels and Alexsandra were with me the whole time…
Healing Pilgrim 