The above is the title of one of Annabeth’s songs. She often sings it at shows as she did, with her band, Larkspur, at the recent Shensara Yoga Festival in Lurray by the Shenandoah River. Rose has been mulling over whether happiness is a choice and has been asking people about this. Gwyneth at the CO-OP said that as a teen she was unhappy and now is aware that she is choosing happiness. She did add on, that happiness sometimes is not a choice but that is only a temporary situation. When I ask her how she is she says “I am fantastic,” and she is.

At the Yoga Festival in Lurray, Rose treated herself to a Thai Massage. She initially asked the masseur if he had a dream, but he did not tell her one then. Rose then told him the recent dream. Before she started her dream,  he laughed and said “I see we are doing dreams anyway.”

I was trying to draw my hand and talking as well. The drawing obliged me and just gave me a perfect depiction of the rat/snake. The drawing of such images is always a good thing as it gets it out of the unconscious and into the conscious. 

His response to Rose’s little nightmare mentioned above was that he remembers a dream of lots of laughter, that he had, as he came out of a dream. He called it a happiness dream. He implied that the happiness was a choice for him. Rose can remember a few dreams in the recent years when she was laughing hysterically at something.

He noted at the end of the massage that he went lightly with his massage, as Rose’s body seemed to need such a treatment. He was pleased at his awareness of her need. He also shared a recurring dream of conflict over the years and laughed a lot at the dreams of fights where he did not “get my licks out.” He noted that his last dream of this sort, he won the fight.  He is an accomplished professional who lives near his young grandson and feels he is a happy man.

Morning Mandala

Rose was sitting on the ground on a blue blanket, unsupported, at the main stage where music was being played, at the Samsara Festival.  Rose went over to talk to a friend sitting on her own. As they talked on the shared blanket an African American Woman came over to them. It was now mostly dark and this woman was backlit by the stage. Her dark hair was tied up in many little buns all over her head. Rose could not see details of her face. She carried a lit cigarette type of incense that carried a lovely sweet scent. Rose followed the lit stick as it was woven all around her in circles, reaching out to one side and all around, back and front and up and down, high and low. Then Rose felt her  bowed out unsupported back being pushed up straight. Then it happened a second time, pretty quickly in sequence, bringing Rose into a straighter alignment on the ground.

I want to go to the Festival

Rose was now sitting up tall and straight and the words “Are you getting this” were whispered into her ear. Rose replied, “I sure am.” Then the incense bearer was gone. Rose hardly stopped talking to her companion on the blanket as it all happened. Now the  action is profoundly appreciated and felt.  As Rose walks into her kitchen today, she straightens up her back. She cannot think what the woman used against her back.

Sitting up tall and straight

Rose wants to say her leg, but it was wider, and she wants to say a cane but it was wider still than that. The back straightener felt solid and woven of precious metals and held together with gold pushing golden light into her, making her aware of the need for her back to be straight in order to let the energy flow. Rose is happy to have had this experience happen to her at the Yoga Festival.

Rose asked her group members if they thought happiness is a choice and there was some silence. Then many conversations broke out all at once. They did not resolve it then. Rose’s own conclusion is that happiness may be a choice. And the caveat is that having decided that “I choose to be happy,” therefore I must accept everything that happens to me, including unpleasant interactions and disappointments. It is all grist for the psychoanalytic mill, to be kept in a safe homunculus of a bowl, to be observed, until such time as it gives up an explanation of what that was all about. This can come by way of a dreams and dream therapy, by way of just following the feelings back inside, and into childhood fodder and or even into past life situations, if you believe this is possible.

In this new moon time Rose is not getting many dreams. Last night she just got a wisp of some threads to consider.  She thought she was at the River Bien in India, associated with Guru Nanak.  Rose has lovely memories of being there. The fact that she went there may be connected with a past life, when she was more in the spiritual flow. He reminds her of Jesus. Guru Nanak was said to have went into the River Bien and was gone for three days. When he came back he was enlightened.  Rose’s dream image was of the water flowing, with the pale green vegetation on top.

Rose’s  friend Deidre Statton LCSW said on Facebook how glad she is that she had an opportunity to work with Therapists at JMU recently. She applauded their willingness to work on themselves. Rose also love to work with therapists and with any and all who want to do their inner work. And when the session is over she often has after thoughts about that bald headed woman image that appeared in a dream.  As she has an afternoon rest, using one eye to focus outwards and one to focus inward she looks for the intuition and that bald head becomes a mirror and she gets more insight into the dream. She would like clients to come more often, in order to keep the energy going within the inner work.

I look forward to hearing from you and working with your dreams. I will continue to work on being happy and on working through what is mine and leaving alone what belongs to others, unless of course you are in therapy with me where I will have to look inward and outward at the same time.  Contact me soon. Tempis fugit. Love from Rose.