“To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June.”

John-Paul Sartre

Digging out from the doldrums

The thermostat’s broken and the wind is howling outside. A loved one has a fever. Travel plans are delayed or canceled. News of tsunamis, hostages, shootings … If you’re having trouble finding what’s lovely about January this year, you’re not alone. I’ve been hearing from many of you, and it seems that all the courage and positivity we mustered as we headed into our first pandemic winter in 2020—is wearing as thin as an old pair of socks.

And yet there are comforts to be had, even on cloud-covered New England days. Sartre was right, the compact elegance of a poem can be deeply satisfying at this time of year. Dreams offer another source of consolation.

A year in dreams

As many of you know, around the New Year I make a list of 100 wonderful things about the year that just passed. I thought the task would be difficult in 2020, and again in 2021. After all, there were so many losses and restrictions—personal sorrows and collective griefs. But last year and this, the list was easy to compile. In addition to the friends and family members, students, and clients, whose names grace my 2021 list—so too do the private messages and custom-made images from my dreams. Like secret love letters slipped beneath my pillow, they offer snippets of story, song, and tender wisdom to help me through even the toughest of times.

Here are some of the sweet somethings my dreams whispered to me in 2021:

• In a dream that took place in a nineteenth-century storybook village, I was advised to: “Wake up to this moment! Know you are here!” For days and weeks after I reminded myself at random moments to pay attention and know I am here in this brief dream of life—and when I did, even mundane moments came vividly alive.
• In a lucid dream where I was teaching people to fly, as soon as a student questioned whether she could stay aloft, she’d sink. When I reminded her to believe she could fly—she soared. As a homily on a Hallmark card that would be trite. But coming through in a dream, the power of the well-worn wisdom was palpable. I reminded myself time and again after that to check my beliefs and watch how whatever script was running in my head shifted my experience awake, too!
• I had several dreams in which I was offered nutritional advice and as a result, I added more leafy greens, grapes, radishes, and pomegranate seeds to my meals—adding variety and healthful ingredients to my routine recipes.
• I was visited by swamis and priestesses in my dreams, reminding me of the spiritual wisdom that lives within each of us.
• I was serenaded in more than one dream, including one where I asked a cellist to play me the song of my heart—and he did. (Too bad I couldn’t press “record” on that dream or I’d play you the soundtrack!)

Granted, my dreams are prolific–but they are not exclusive. Your dreams, too, are whispering to you.

So, if you need to dig yourself out of the doldrums:

• Look through your journals and consider the dreams you jotted down there might be love letters from your soul—and search them for whatever wisdom and guidance they might have to offer.
• Or pick up a volume of poetry and do the same. Poems are like dreams that have been printed on the page. Take them in as such, and search them for moments of insight and understanding–or just plain beauty–to brighten a winter day.

Spring is coming! But until the blossoms emerge from beneath the ground, continue to befriend yourself in ways that are meaningful to you.

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In the comments below, share a poem—or dream–that has helped you through a dark time.

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