My Life In Dreams

About a month ago, I was dressing to attend a party.  As a finishing touch to my outfit, I reached for the “perfect” necklace only to find that it was missing from its normal spot in my jewelry box.  Where could it be?  I wondered out loud.  When did I wear it last?  With little time left to search for it – I was already running late and to add more stress, my husband was waiting patiently in the car for me to leave the house -- I left the house feeling slightly disappointed, knowing that my outfit looked a bit blah.   

Weeks passed, and the necklace was still nowhere to be found.   I had searched everywhere.  I took my closet apart several times, thinking it may have fallen behind some shoe boxes or into bins where I store my belts.    I cleaned out my bedroom dresser.  I double checked all my luggage cases.  I even checked every nook and cranny in my house, including my bathroom cabinets and each time, I came up empty handed. . . Nada . . . Zip . . . Zilch.    

It wasn’t an expensive piece of jewelry, mind you, rather it had sentimental value; it was my mother’s necklace.  So, it was hard to let go.  Just when I was ready to give up any hope of finding my treasured necklace,  I decided to set a dream intention; I asked  my dreams to please help me locate my missing necklace. 

That night, in my dream, I saw my necklace safely tucked behind a plastic pouch. The next morning, as I dressed for work, the image of my necklace from my dream came flooding back into my mind.    Like a bolt out of the blue, I thought.  Check your traveling jewelry case.   Could it be?  I already checked my traveling jewelry case, several times before.  Impossible!   Yes?   No?  

Inspired by my dream and with a growing sense of conviction, I decided to check my traveling jewelry case one last time.   I didn't see the necklace at first glance  – even though I was searching in a deliberate manner – because the backing of the jewelry case is black and so is the necklace.   The necklace had blended into the background of my case, making it virtually invisible. 

As I retrieved my necklace, I thought. That was easy!  Quoting the easy button I have sitting on top of my desk. It’s the button I press whenever I complete a difficult task by taking an easier route.   All I had to do was to ask my dreams!  It couldn't have been easier.  I should have thought about doing so before I tore the house apart inside and out, looking for it in the first place!  

Setting a dream intention is on my tip list for improving dream recall.  Stay posted to learn how easy it is to set a dream intention!  

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For decades, my Great Aunt Lilly served as the matriarch of my mother’s family.  She was also visionary: She shopped at restaurant supply stores long before Costco was a twinkle in Wall Street’s eye, and she built her custom-designed bridal dress business literally with her own two-hands, starting out with only $250.00.       

My Aunt Lilly had a keen eye.  She never used prefabricated dress patterns to make her gowns. She made her own sewing patterns.   She simply would eyeball your measurements and then with a snipping of the scissors viola! a custom handmade pattern.  From there she spun her magic in fabric, beads, pearls, sequins and gold.

My mother was extremely close to my Great Aunt Lilly, as were many of my mother’s sisters and cousins.  In fact, during my teenage years, my parents bought a house on the same block in the same town, Merrick, NY, where my Great Aunt Lilly had recently moved her family.  

While living in Merrick, my Great Aunt shared many pearls of wisdom over a dish of pasta and a dash of humor.   One of the most valuable lessons that I learned from my Great Aunt Lilly was that success was in my hands.  I realized early on, in my teens, that whatever success I might achieve in life – personally or professionally – was going to be entirely up to me.   No excuses.   It was always “Go-Time” with my Great Aunt Lilly.   I have never forgotten this lesson, and I chose it as my Welcome Page to my professional hypnotism website: www.theinnerworkshop.com in honor of my Great Aunt Lilly.

My Great Aunt Lilly lived a long life.  The fabric of my Great Aunt Lilly’s life was weaved, as every life is, through personal tragedy and personal triumph.  However, it was the strength of her spirit, unfailing optimism, and sense of joy that uniquely colored it her own. 

The last time I had the chance to see my  Great Aunt before she died was at the hospital, as she neared death.  Death did not weaken my Great Aunt Lilly’s spirit.  As sick as she was, she determinedly shared, one last time, the importance of living one’s life to the fullest, fearlessly, and with joy and in love – no matter what. I know her departing words were primarily directed to my sister, whose heart and life were shattered when my sister’s husband passed away unexpectedly.     

A few years after my Great Aunt Lilly’s death, my mother grew ill and frail.  About six-months’  before my own mother’s passing, my Great Aunt Lilly paid me a powerful and unexpected visit in a dream.  I promised to share this dream, and I can think of no better day than to do so than on Mother’s Day:

March 3, 2008.

My Great Aunt Lilly appears in a white flowing gown.  She appears to be in her late thirties or early forties, and her hair is golden blonde, framing her face like a halo. She is holding a thick, beautiful white book.    She says, “You know, you only have one chance to do it right, Janice.”    And then she shows me my mother’s tombstone. On it is written:  Sept. 1, 2008.  I know exactly what she means.   Time is running out, and this September 1^st is to be my mother’s last birthday on earth.   

[What person would be better qualified to assign  the task of gently preparing me to face up to the ultimate truth that  my mother was going to die --  and soon?  And what person would serve better to deliver it with a sense of style and a dash of creative humor, as you can see from the rest of my Great Aunt’s dream conversation.]

My Great Aunt Lilly then begins to pull out white file pages from the thick, white book she is holding and clips them to the top of the book. I notice the files are written in gold.  My Great Aunt continues her conversation:   “You know, she has been checking into things.  Do you want to see what she has been checking into?” 
“Sure,” I respond.

As my Great Aunt flips through the files, she reveals some of the things that my mother has been looking into.   “She’s checked into Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.”  I found that a bit funny.   “She really checked on them?”   “Yes, indeed,” my Aunt confirms.

“Do you want to know what she has learned about you?”  I hesitate before responding, because it suddenly dawns on me in my dream that My Great Aunt Lilly is looking through the Akashic Records.   “I guess.” I respond.    “Well, then . . . ” Aunt Lilly says.  And with that short intro she holds up a photograph of my sister and me.  We are standing together, and I am smiling.  My Great Aunt Lilly says, “You are a healer.  Your mother wants you to take your sister into your healing process.”  And then she firmly repeats and ends the dream with this statement: “Your sister needs to be brought into your healing process.”    

As I awaken from this dream, I realize that the healing process, after my mother’s death, would involve not only my sister’s healing but mine, too.

September 1^st was my mother’s last birthday, here with us.  My mother passed on November 20^th, 2008. I did take my sister into my healing process, and she is happily building a new life with a new man, engaged to be married.

My Great Aunt Lilly continues to make her presence known to me in my dreams.  In one particular dream, soon after my mother’s passing, my Great Aunt Lilly revealed to me that she and her sisters, including my mother’s mother, were helping my mother to recuperate from her passing.  In this dream I saw my  mother sitting on a beach blanket at the shore, enjoying the sun and the fresh air.  My mother was surrounded in love by the strong women, who loved her:  My mother’s grandmother, my mother’s mother and her sisters:   Lilly, Josephine, Rosie.    They were all alive and well.   

I am posting a picture of my mother and my Great Aunt Lilly in their youth.  I am doing so because they were forever young in heart and soul and in love with life, even when old and ill; and it is this message that speaks the loudest to me today. 

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“In dreams, the state of our footwear often suggests the state of our souls.  You can hear the echo of soul in sole.”  ~~ Robert Moss, Author: DREAMING THE SOUL BACK HOME.

Shoes in dreams have always been a stimulating discussion in my family.  My sister has a particular dream symbolism with shoes:  Whenever my sister dreams of a specific person wearing a pair of black shoes that signifies to her that someone within that person’s family group is going to pass away.  Her dream accuracy has been – if I had to guess – 98% accurate. 

Even though we are sisters and oftentimes dream similar dream themes, the appearance of shoes in my dreams means something entirely different to me.  In my dreams shoes often keep me connected to my physical body as I travel in my dream body, reminding me to stay grounded.  Shoes often reflect my personal state of mind.  Am I  grieving?  Have I reclaimed my passion?  Am I stuck in tight places – financially, emotionally, or professionally? Shoes often clue me in to where and what my dream self is up to.  Am I traveling in my dream back in time to retrieve an aspect of my soul that may have been  lost along the way, or am I connecting to people and places I may have known in past lives or in parallel realities.  

Here are a few questions that might help guide you to understand what the state of your footwear in your dream means to you:   Am I wearing shoes,  or am I barefooted?  If I am barefooted, is it by choice or have I lost my shoes?  In what condition do I find my feet? Are they clean and well-groomed, or are they covered in dirt?  If I am wearing shoes, what style are they?  What color are my shoes?  Are they worn, or are they brand new?  Are they a perfect fit, or are they too tight? Would I normally wear this style of shoes?   And where exactly are these shoes taking me – down a city block or up a primal path?  And, perhaps, my feet are dressed in socks, instead.  In which case, a new round of questions might be called for.    

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“Our true spiritual teachers come looking for us in dreams, and often they come in unexpected forms.” -- Robert Moss, Author and Originator of Active Dreaming.

Each time I read this quote it is as powerful and exquisite as when I read it for the first time.   These words beautifully express a profound and timeless truth -- a truth that reached out to me across time and space in a dream and transformed my life:  

In my dream, I am walking down a path in the middle of the night.   Suddenly, I see two, glowing yellow-green eyes, about three or so feet from the ground, intensely staring at ME!

I stop in my tracks, frozen with fear.  While still in the dream and quite lucid,  I sum up my predicament:  My husband is away on a business trip.   I am alone in the house.  It’s storming outside, and two disembodied yellow-green eyes, glowing in stark contrast against an eerie pitch black nightfall, are locked on me as if I were prey.   I am not in the mood for this.  Determined to shut this dream down and NOW, I hear myself saying, "No! No!" 

As if to signal “Hey, not so fast,” a Native American man suddenly begins to take form.   He appears to be a young man, in his late twenties or early thirties.  He is bare-chested, wearing an animal skin apron around his waist.  His long, silky, shiny jet-black hair freely cascades below his shoulders and rests on his chest.  

His presence is instantly calming.   I am no longer terrified, and I decide to allow the dream to continue.   Somehow, in the process, I claim enough courage to risk looking back at the two, glowing eyes that once terrified me.   To my surprise the eyes have become fully embodied by a sleek, muscular, powerful, panther, whose silky, shiny jet-black fur seems to share a familial oneness with the Native American Indian, who is now standing at panther’s side. 

“Who are you?” I ask the Native American young man, standing before me.   He shares his name with me, and as he does he extends a gift to me that he is holding in his right hand. It is a necklace that looks like an elongated cross with open wings at the top.   I intuitively understand that I am to wear this necklace from this day forward. 

I accept his gift and realize, as I do so, that the winged cross necklace symbolizes a larger gift that the Native American has brought with him to share with me.  This gift consists of several animals, in addition to the panther:  A white bear, an eagle, a wolf, a horse that acts like a dog, a lion, gorilla, and a domesticated cat and dog.  

I lingered in bed the morning I had awakened from this dream, contemplating its meaning.   I recognized that this was a BIG dream for me.   Why? I am a New York girl -- born and raised -- somewhat of a homebody, who does not enjoy traveling around the world to exotic places.   My only connection with wild, exotic animals is to observe them from a safe distance standing on a patch of cement, like at the Bronx Zoo.  Yes!  I tended a small garden in the backyard as a kid and encountered a wild squirrel here and there that inadvertently found its way into our basement.  And, Yes, I unquestionably love and adore my animal companions, sharing a deep spiritual connection     But a Panther??? A  little bit out of my league, don’t you think?  

Indeed!  This dream was significant and just to be sure that I did not doubt myself and its significance to my life, unbeknownst to me the Universe was busy conjuring up a bit of synchronicity.  

My husband returned from his business trip from Salt Lake City, Utah, the same evening of the morning after the dream.  (I had not shared my dream with my husband, nor with anyone else for that matter, at that time.)  When traveling, my husband always returns home with a small gift for me.   When I opened the gift that my husband had brought home from his trip to Utah, I was stunned to see that he had bought me the exact necklace that the Native American Indian had given to me in my dream  –  an elongated cross with wings at the top.  “It’s a Native American totem necklace with eagle wings,” he said.   “I LOVE IT," I exclaimed, more than he could ever guess.    

The first thing I did the next morning was to search out someone who would be able to guide me to understand my dream in a way that brought meaning and purpose to my life -- and the rest is history.  

Today, I am a Certified Teacher of Active Dreaming, dedicated to helping you actively engage the power and wisdom of your dreams for personal success and well-being. I have studied and trained with the premier Dream Teacher Robert Moss, author and originator of Active Dreaming.    

There is much more to this story about panther and me, as you might surmise from the picture I have chosen to use for my website’s blog.   Panther would return more fiercely than before, time and time again.  Ultimately, I would have to come face-to face with panther; there was no place for me to run and hide.  However, that is a story for another day.  Stay tuned!

Please feel free to share with your friends and family.  And, if you have a willingness to do so, please don’t forget to LIKE my page!

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