What I like best about dreams is that after paying so much attention to the symbols generated by the mind asleep, I start to see symbols everywhere in the world awake.

Case in point. In yoga class the teacher told the students that we should focus on our hearts. She said: “Soften your heart.” I said, “How do you do that?” She touched my back between my shoulder blades and said, “Soften here.” I said, “How do I do that?” She paused and said, “You’ll find a way.”

All week I tried to soften the back of my heart.

I never really thought about the back of my heart before.

But as I tried to soften the back of my heart, I felt the front of my heart open and lift.

Then suddenly, hearts began appearing as if out of the blue … or out of a dream:

At work, one of my students handed me a present. No occasion. She said she noticed the pink heart I wear sometimes around my neck, and so she thought I’d like these. She then handed me a box of heart pendants.

I was so moved by her generosity I barely noticed the poetry of the moment. A few days of breathing into my back heart, and opening my front heart, and now I was gifted with a box of hearts!

A week after that I was on vacation. While in Belgium, I met a friend I’d only met before on the Internet. After spending a magical day of flea markets, glass elevators, beautiful views, charming streets and a real Belgian waffle (with whipped cream and cherries) … she pulled out a little gift for me:

A hand-knit heart.

I am going to keep breathing into mine, front and back, to see what other hearts I might attract and where else the symbols might appear and where the metaphors might take me.

<3 <3 <3

With thanks to Kritzia, Nadine and the Yoga Teacher, whose name I don’t know!