John: My dream has to do with making things too complex. Your dream had to do with reaching a point of deeper realness by just flowing with the change that is happening. Mine has to do with sensing what is afoot, but still getting entangled in the details of every possible scenario. In that way I prevent the simplicity from just coming through.
My dream has two parts; one links to the other.
In the first part I am lined up in a service line – there’s a little counter that runs the length of the line – and as each person passes along that line, two keys are placed in front of them. I see myself as alone; I don’t know anyone else in the line.
When the person puts the two keys before me, I get confused. I feel that two keys implies that I’m with someone else. I don’t see it that way, so I feel that I must give the person next to me – the next one up the line – the extra key. That just continues the confusion, because that person is with someone else and has been given two keys of his own.
This would suggest that in order to take my key, they’d have to break up one of their two keys and pass it along. This would keep spreading the problem further down the line. That’s what’s going on in the first image.
Then I see myself able to proceed to a table where there are various keys laid out. I’m supposed to select one. I’m one of the first that can make the selection so I have all kinds of keys just spread out in front of me. Each one of these keys belongs to a different car. I need to pick one of these keys because I need a vehicle to get where I’m going. I have the sense that I’m going to a different place and I will need a different vehicle than the one I already have.
The place I’m going is somewhere in California. I get that sense because I seem to settle on a Ford pick-up truck key and I’m beginning to think this truck must be okay because it has California plates on it. It wasn’t the kind of key I was looking for. All the keys are to older vehicles and I was thinking that if I’m going to get an older vehicle, I want something that just kind of runs and runs, so I’m looking around for a Toyota key. Ultimately I settle on the pick-up.
As I’m settling back, I’m evaluating the usefulness of this vehicle in light of the heavy traffic I will face in California. I rationalize that the selection I made will work out because I also have a newer vehicle already that I can bring with me to this new place. So this pick-up truck can be there if and when I need it. I feel that if the need should exist – not that I can really imagine it – but if and when the need should arise where something needs to be transported around, at least I’ll have a vehicle that can do that.
I’m holding onto the concept of “you never know what might come up.” So I feel I have that option covered, but deep down I know that a pick-up truck in bumper-to-bumper California traffic has a lot of limitations for day-to-day use. I know I’m not going to be transporting anything very often.
So I think the truck is going to make things much more difficult and awkward. I also begin to remember that I have a newer vehicle and I’m not sure how I will be able to take that with me. I now sense that I’m probably going to be required to handle whatever arises with the vehicle provided.
So we can see that in both these dream scenarios, I am unable to sort out what has been given to me. I’m not in touch with what is mine – I’m still caught up in the affairs of others, in a way.
As a consequence, I’m carrying around concerns that need to be left behind. What is presented to me in the outer world doesn’t need all the other issues to be factored into the mix. I’m meant to play the hand that I’m dealt, and in doing so I must relate to how things are in that place and what I have at my disposal to work with. I’m not supposed to be worrying about every possible scenario.
So what the dream is telling me is that I need to stay with the simple ordinariness of a situation, and not infect it by introducing more problems than I am equipped, or prepared, to deal with. If I don’t, my confusion will infect everything else and will become self-perpetuating.
