During COVID, I started paying attention to my dreams and writing them down. When I write down dreams, more dreams appear that make sense, and I could decode the dreams eventually.
I will share three dreams here that may be related to the previous entry, The storm will come”.
First dream:
During COVID, I saw two full- grown lions jump out of the big gate. I told Nguyen. Nguyen asked in a concerned voice. “ Two lions jumped out and moved toward us?”
I said no, “Run away from me.” This dream was easy for me to understand. “ My two children went away from their parents for college.”
One thing was questionable. Beo ( Beo in Vietnamese is Leopard/ He was born in the year of Tiger/on the August zodiac sign was Leo) was a Lion. Mando was not. She was born in the year of the snake. Yet, I still think both full-grown lions were both of my children.
Dreams work with layers. According to Google AI, psychologically, based on Freud and Carl Jung, a lion is viewed as a symbol of the archetypal hero and transformation, or the powerful animal repression, aggressive desires, or raw dominance.
Many traditions see lions as a sign of spiritual awakening/higher guidance and a reminder to tap into your innate resilience during challenging times.
Both kids got out/ transformed into full-grown adults to college.
I got the answer to this dream after a long time of contemplating.
Second dream:
After Mano went back to Seattle West Point for her medical leave, I had a dream seeing her, and I stayed in front of the school's big gate. The tall and heavy gate closed in front of us. I stood next to her/ the background was dark, and the ground got muddy. I know that dreams reflect our reality at that time. The door shut down / the road ahead was muddy and sticky, but I was with her.
Third dream:
Very recently, last week, right after I posted the previous entry, “the storm will come,” I had a peculiar dream.
I saw my first cousin's wife from my mother's side, Ms. Nguyet ( Moon in English), come to our apartment. She gave me a piece of cake and some leftovers of a sweet treat wrapped in a piece of light blue paper.
I never ever had her in my dreams. The last time I met her in person was at my mom’s 49-day death ceremony.
In the dream, my apartment was clean, revealing a lot of empty space.
Then I saw three Tiger cups coiling, sleeping peacefully at the corner of the house. The image of three little cups sleeping and coiling reminded me of my old dog Happie. Happie is aging/ He does not do much except for sleeping and resting on his small bed every day.
It took me a few days to think about how weird the dream was. The more I think, the more layers of this dream unfolded.
Cake / Moon during this time as mooncake for Mid-Autumn Festival. Actually, we are preparing to celebrate this children's festival by the end of this week. My cousin's wife, named Nguyet/ Moon and she, gave me a cake: a mooncake.
Did the dream invite me back to the Mid-Autumn Festival? Quite interesting. Actually, tomorrow, Friday 09/25/26, is the Autumn Festival.
The dream happened after the entry “ The storm will come” revealed an image of the clean and empty house. I shared the story to vent it out. My mind and heart are much lighter after sharing. I do not have the burden of “ telling this important story” anymore. I have more empty space inside my heart and mind to breathe right now. Or continued to deal with emty nest symdrome when all the children grown and move out of the house?
Instead of seeing two lions jump out of the gate like before, now I see peaceful, sleeping little Tigers coming back to a safe house to sleep/ to rest after the storm passes.
I got old artworks that two children and I did back in Davis. Tiger collage with torn paper. We did the whole summer for this project.
Why three? I have two lions /or two children only. Why three.
I thought that the third one might be me, as the dream already invited me back to my childhood.
The Mid-Autumn Festival was always one of the most celebrated times during my childhood. I always got invitations to participate in art competitions as a child artist. We would look forward to the moon cake that my father sent to us. Mooncakes were expensive. My mother could not afford to buy mooncakes for us. Father always sent us a tin box with four mooncakes every year. We could eat them in rations. Mother cut each cake into four. We took time to eat our portion and drank tea. I made lanterns out of bamboo sticks and tissue or newspaper. I even had to cook the rice paste to make glue as buying glue would be too expensive. I did not have wire to build my lantern. I did not rubber band. Sometimes after it done, I lighted up with a small candle inside and the rubber band got burned and detroyed my Lantern. I would go to sleep very sad that night. My mom would said, lucky you did not burn the house down.
The sleeping little tiger was me.
I am ready to let my little Tiger of my childhood sleep in peace.
I hope.
I made these artworks when I was a child during the Mid-Autumn Festival. My mother saved all of these for me. Now it's my turn to save all of my children 's art for them.
I miss my mother pretty much every day. I miss her, not anymore crying, sad nor depressed, less guilty, but with love in my peaceful heart.
Now, during this time, when the day gets darker soon in Seattle, our art class will make lanterns to light up the darkness and boost spirit and mood, as well as celebrate holidays until the end of the year.
Making Lanterns is a safe way to help artists to go back to childhood and process adversity and trauma. During these festive activities, things from the past may come up. Sadness and depression may become triggers. But the act of cutting/ glueing the colorful paper together helps to amend the past. We do not use candle for this project. We are better now. we used LED light. When the light inside is turned on, our hearts get warm just looking at it.
Here are some Lanterns that we made throughout the years.
No comments:
Post a Comment