“Why are your dreams so clear, but you are so fuzzy to talk with?”
I had an immediate and clear answer to that question, which was posed to me by a therapist thirty years ago. But I was fuzzy to talk to, so of course, I gave a fuzzy answer.
My quick answer was: dreams are unconscious. There’s no need to justify my dreams. I just report them as experienced. Conversations are different. I need to jump through hoops to say the right thing.
I have other insights to that question now. Dreams speak a symbolic language. Back then, I didn’t speak that language. My dreams were clear to a therapist who worked with imagery and symbols – but not to me.
The other insight is that my inner world and outer world were so many miles apart. In my experience, one only spoke of the externals. These days, when someone asks me what I’m up to, I’m likely to share insights, dreams and inner experiences. Those days, in conversations, only the externals mattered. It was as if the internals didn’t exist.
I have residuals from those days. Recently, ladies in a new group asked me to tell them about myself. I spoke of my career. The fact is, for this group, the internals are much more relevant. How do I think, feel, and operate? What matters to me? Where is my heart?
It is becoming much easier to talk about the internals. It’s also exciting to experience the connections and the sharing that the “inside story” inspires. Last night, a longtime family friend dropped by. I asked him questions about his life that got him sharing about his vision, his values and his interests. We discovered all kinds of things he had not shared before. Much of the detail was over our heads, but it didn’t matter. We didn’t need to understand the particulars to get a sense of the depth of his life quest. We learned a lot about how this dear friend thinks, feels and operates, what matters to him and where his heart is.
I love exchanging true inside stories.
