Ever wonder where the idiom ‘Stick up for yourself” came from? I never did…until recently. Each night my sleep is filled with dreams that I remember upon waking and this month I had two dreams involving sticks. In the first I was with a group of people on the edge of a rocky shore looking for sticks to defend ourselves against whatever was coming at us from the sea. The waves were rough, the rocks slippery and I remember the group of us wildly waving the sticks toward some unknown threat.
The morning after this scene, I checked out “stick” in my dream book. One reference was ‘sticking up for oneself’ which made me smile, thinking how through the universal consciousness language evolves. Encoded in my dream, I may have been working through a way to assert myself…. The stick now becomes the symbol of my ability to become empowered however primitive the image or weapon.
In last night’s dream, an intruder chased me through my house and out into the street. In the street I yelled “Fire” somehow cognizant, remembering how my Dad always said if you were in trouble don’t just scream, but scream “Fire”. People who would be otherwise scared and possibly immobilized by a scream will come and look when they think something is on fire. In my nightmare a neighbor came out and distracted the guy and I then picked up a stick to defend myself. It crumbled like a cookie in my hand but I found another and went toward my attacker with the stick up, defending myself, a little more courageous with my neighbor out in the street and my stick in hand.
I woke from this street fight with the knowledge I am somehow doing my best to assert myself and take care of me, sticking with the theme of empowerment. I wondered however if in the dream world of the universal unconscious I’m actually enrolled in some sort of cosmic night school. If I am, I must be in the class of Practical Life. I’ll just have to stick with this and see where it leads. Hope I get a good report card.
