One night, I, once again, dream of death;
a repeating theme lately. I am waiting for several people to die, and they seem
to take ages to do so. Slowly, they
slowly turn into brownish-grey mud beings. I stand aside, witnessing it, left
desolate.
It reminds me of a sentence I once read,
“Now, in the middle of the journey of my illness, I am left alone and
defenceless.”(1)
A realisation pops up that the dying
people are part of me; the old me, from whom I want to detach, release or
transform. As I am not totally ready to do so, in the dream I feel an uncomfortable
sense of guilt towards them, as if I am betraying them. Letting them die seems
as if they were not good enough, as if the old me maybe was not good enough? I
have to tell them that they were, at the time, but that now I no longer need
what they stand for: qualities of my pre-illness past, like impatience, direct
sharp communication, and the multi-tasking workaholism. Let those qualities serve
other people now.
Time for some homework it seems, as I then
dream I am being forced into a gloomy cellar to clean the incredible filthy
steps descending before me; a horrible task I have been given to undertake.
Finally, after finishing it, I discover an old squeaking door in the cellar,
which brings in fresh air and light. What a relief!
My old organisational skills are well
placed to open new doors, I think. I would like to invite and integrate a new
me, new personalities, as a gift on this journey of illness. Dissimilar to the
old me in many ways. Not only physically older, but also wiser, with more
experience on the inner. This physical condition teaches me new boundaries to
what I can do, and can no longer. At other times, it forces me even to give up
all limits and borders, depending on the shifting sands of my energy. It
teaches me compassion, patience and slowing down, in fact a lot of slowing
down. Taking this in, I realise I now want to live with an evolved set of
boundaries, whether I am ill or healthy.
(1) from The Alchemy of Illness,1993, by Kat Duff
Blog 43, © text and photo: Adriana Sjan Bijman, March 2016
www.findhornimages.com
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