Thursday, March 13, 2014

Friday in the First Week of Lent



Genesis 40: 7-8
So he asked Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

When all of creation seems to be germinating in the dark and cold underground, all I want to do is snuggle back under the covers in the morning. But I am seeking more than warmth: I am digging for a thread from my last dream before waking—a dream that is most likely puzzling, full of elements of my “real life” that are connected awkwardly or even disturbingly. The images fade as I promise myself to remember them.

I believe that dreams are one of the many gifts of God. They are holy messages from the spirit, invitations to descend—or ascend—into exploration of the images and connections.

Many times, when working through a dream, I experience the holy. The disturbing elements become pathways for understanding. Asking myself, “Which part of me does this person in my dream represent?” invites me to accept in myself what I am unable to accept in others. Reliving the feelings of my dream, I am able to inhabit and express these feelings better in my waking life. Working with my dreams, I come to a place of comfort, a place where I can rest knowing that, “All shall be well . . . and all manner of things shall be well,” in the words of Julian of Norwich.

“Do not interpretations belong to God?” says Joseph. I think what Joseph means is that the “truth” of our dreams resides in God, in that expansive, infinite knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

Awake now, I can inhabit the lengthening days with more light, more space, and more gratitude for the many blessings of my life, especially this gift of inquiry, which brings me closer to God.

   Leslie Middleton

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