THE DREAM

I am in a big house with a lot of women when most of them get up and leave. I have the sense that we have been invited to visit some neighbors. Another woman and I start following the now-distant group to a nearby neighborhood. We see lots of small Jewish flags stuck in the ground. It becomes clear these four or five large, lovely houses are a Jewish enclave. The families have invited their neighbors to come to an open house.

We are approached by a handsome dark-haired man in an expensive grey silk suit. It is obvious that he and I know one another already. Our friendship – and maybe even courtship – didn’t just begin with this dream. He comes up beside me and hugs me tightly to himself with one arm. “You didn’t know I lived here, did you?”

“No.”

“That’s my house over there. Let me show you.”

He and I go around to the back of the house and enter a large room. There is what looks like a large indoor swimming pool but the “floor” is only five inches or so down from the edge. The floor area is painted with a modern blue and white design and there is only a couple of inches of water. We take our shoes off, step into the “pool” and playfully walk to the other end. At the far end we step out.

He says, “Kind of a funny pool isn’t it – with so little water?”

“Yes.”

“Watch this!” He pushes a control and the bottom of the pool begins to move down and more water rushes in.

“It can be as much as ten feet deep, if people want to dive. I usually keep it at about four feet for lap swimming.”

“I lap swim,” I say.

He looks at me. “You didn’t know about this, did you?”

“No! I haven’t been looking for a rich guy with a lap pool!”

“I know you haven’t, but you seem to have found one.”

He seems absolutely delighted that I am someone who likes him who doesn’t know about his wealth, who hasn’t been seeking his friendship because of his riches.

I give him a peck of a kiss on the lips. I wake up as he is about to deliver another kiss, not a peck.

DREAMWORK

I had this dream in September of 2009. I shared it with my Spiritual Director. She looked like she wanted to say something about it but held her tongue. Later that week I shared it with a dear friend who is a nun. She told me she had heard someone say that dreams of being courted are often about the soul seeking God.

The next time I saw my Spiritual Director I told her this. She smiled. “That is what I almost said last time but I wanted you to uncover that yourself.” She went on to say, “I’ve gotten to know you well enough that I would say that in your case these dreams are not about your soul seeking God but about you finding God. I think this one is more about God finding you, showing that God wants to care for you and to give you riches and even luxuries.”

I had written the dream in the past tense. She encouraged me to read it in the present tense (as I have now written it above.) I read it and we laughed all the way through. What a joy to think of that person as God, wooing me!

A few other related ideas from my dream work:

What about all the other women? God loves them, too, but this dream is about my personal relationship with God and God’s relationship with me.

Might the two friends on the journey relate to the two on the road to Emmaus?

“Backdoor friends are best.” We enter his house by the back door not through the formal entrance.

Water is often a symbol of the self. Is it here? The water of life? Abundance of water. Something about baptism? Or purification? Or play?

My God is a Jewish man…in an expensive silk suit!

What else might be here?

Do you work on your dreams?