A couple of nights ago I dreamt that a hedgehog had entered my house. It was wandering around unaware that it was where it wasn't supposed to be. Someone discovered it and it suddenly became panicked, trying frantically to get out. It ran towards me and scurried up my body in its attempt to escape. When it arrived at my nose it looked at me and we both were thinking what to do next. It took the initiative and kissed me. It's the most delightful dream I've had in a long time.

This dream came to me at a time when I've been going through tremendous growth. I looked up the symbolic meaning of hedgehog and found that this little creature symbolizes energy, vitality, fertility, intuition, protection. perception intelligence and resourcefulness.

Also, because the hedgehog's active time is at night it it represents second sight. The meaning of this just came to me as I write this. I've been quite active at night lately and unable to sleep. Perhaps my totem hedgehog has been keeping me awake. 

I find dreams so magical as they sometimes are ahead of me, telling me when I’ve arrived.

 I recently dreamt that I was walking down a street when I saw a woman giving birth in or on an open car. Her husband was catching the baby. I saw what was happening and decided to run to a hospital to tell them to prepare for the family. Just behind me was a woman who just went up to the baby and began to kitchy-coo it. In the dream I thought to myself, “Now why didn’t I do that?” 

Then, still in the dream, I couldn’t figure out whether I was doing my old thing of second guessing myself or if indeed the other woman had the right idea.

I’m so thankful to have a therapist who helped me see what my dream was telling me.

I've been noticing recently how my dreams keep me "honest" - I go through my days telling myself and even feeling like things are going o.k., I'm doing just fine with not alot of stuff happening in my emotional world.  And then I wake up in the morning and reflect on my dream from the night before and I'm annoyed because things that i thought weren't bothering me are being played out in my dreams and leaving emotional residues that stay with me throughout much of the day.

It amazes me still, and i've been working with dreams for a long time, how my unconscious world weaves through my conscious world - telling me what I need to remember, reminding me where I'm at in my emotional landscape and journey, and even sometimes telling me about the path that lies ahead.

I have been enjoying reading the dreams of others who have posted.  I generally do remember quite a few of my dreams and am able to bring them into my therapy sessions.  My therapist is very skilled at helping me to understand my dreams and the meanings of them.  I still can tend to get stuck when trying to interpret the dream myself as I can get focused on the actual content and sometimes on my own can't see past that to the symbolism.  That is not to say that at times the actual content itself is not important.  I can remember a time earlier on in my therapy when my therapist asked me if I had a dream to share.  My response was that my dreams are boring, they are literally everyday "stuff".  Things that could easily happen such as I am in the grocery store and I am buying my groceries for the week.  My therapist asked me "do you feel your life is boring"?  I remember I began to cry as indeed I felt that not only was my life boring but at times it felt meaningless.  It was a profound moment because until that point I hadn't even acknowledged to myself how I was feeling about my life. I guess I just think that dreams are a beautiful gift to uncovering our unconscious and a very useful tool in our therapuetic journey.

For over a year I was not been able to remember my dreams. But in the last few weeks, I remember so many I can hardly write them down. I am coming out the end of a long period of struggle and I feel very in tune with spring. I think that my dreams are relfections of this re-birth, this transformation I am going through.

Today I had a dream with my therapist in it. This does not happen very often. Most of my dreams are pretty chaotic.

In this dream, my therapist is teaching a group something, a word puzzle which she writes on the balckboard. When she finishes the lesson she goes to her office. I follow her into the office to talk to her. She pulls out a pair of long-sleeved coveralls with the school logo on it and asks me to try it on, even though it might be too big. I explain that one piece clothes like this often look bigger than they are and that it would probably fit me just fine. I know this from when my children wore little one piece outfits. So I put it on and sure enough it fits and I walk around showing it off. I feel that my therapist is supportive of this. I even get wet in it and people were taking photos of me.

After all the excitement dies down, my mother comes in the room. I introduce her to my therapist, who reaches over and holds her hand warmly and says how good it is to meet her. I can feel the warm glow from my therapist go into my mother who is old and crouched over. My mother is surprised and holds back a bit, but seems pleased. This makes me very happy as my mother has always been somewhat doubtful of my therapy.

It has been a long journey with my therapist, but recently we had a breakthrough in our relationship and I believe this is reflected in the dream. I am not just receiving, but also actively giving my opinion. We are equal terms. I have in a sense, all grown up and my therapist trusts me and supports me as I proudly present myself.

It is really important to me that my real life mother also respects me and I feel that there is a breakthrough with that as well. My therapist has through out the years of therapy held my mother with love, even when I was railing against her. The therapist gives my mother warmth through me. As she grows old and frail, I can give her warmth.

I woke up with this dream feeling very full and proud of myself.