“So far as ye are able, ignite a candle of love in every meeting, and with tenderness rejoice and cheer ye every heart. Care for the stranger as for one of your own; show to alien souls the same loving kindness ye bestow upon your faithful friends.”    Abdu’l Baha (Baha’i Writings)

So in my dream last night I am in  my children’s house.  Being in your children’s home to me means my own self that I am passing onto them.  A house in a dream is the self so being in their house is both my positive qualities and the work left undone which they and my grandchildren inherit.   This dream shows how important it is to do your own work so that the people who come after you can work at a more advanced level.

I am bringing in 4 baby cobras that when I am holding them do not seem at all dangerous.   They are in an aquarium like cage, but when I am in their house, they start to get out.    I keep telling myself that they are not dangerous right now for my grandchildren, but in the back of my mind I am fearful that they are going to quickly grow up and become victim to the poison.   My youngest grandson is just waking up from his nap and I am most concerned about him in regard to the snakes. As a positive metaphor snakes are the symbol most connected with transformation (see The Highly Misunderstood Snake), but on a negative level cobras are about the deadliest of all snakes.   Because the snakes are out of control and I am fearing the damage they will cause later,  this signifies that I am passing on something negative to my grandchildren especially the youngest boy.   What am I passing on for him to deal with? It seems to me that I have experienced being the victim of a really poisonous environment 4 times in my life which is why there are 4 small cobras.    In all 4 cases people used backbiting, malicious gossip, and unfounded criticism against me to advance themselves.    The repeated problem that I have had is that I have not been able to let go of what they did.   I have had the unfortunate pattern of stubbornly holding ill feelings for a long time which only really ends up hurting one person, myself.   So what the dream is so far telling me, in my opinion, is that if I don’t transform the effects of the poisonous environments on me,  then my grandson will have to go through the same thing.    I think that is as clear as I have ever gotten about how we pass on our bad stuff.

In the next part of the dream or maybe right before my grandson wakes up I am in the kitchen with all of the grandchildren and especially my youngest daughter.   I am eating some ice cream and am about to offer her some, but she has 4 cartons of ice cream right in front of her on the table that she is eating.     So right away I am thinking about this quote. “; if they poison your lives, sweeten their souls”  also from Abdu’l Baha.  I have probably read the quote a 100o times, but I have never been able to do it.   But here it is staring me right in the face in the dream.   What ice cream means in the dream is the quality of sweetness.    When people poison my life,  I am so self-righteous in holding onto stubborn feelings against them and then I get hurt.    But when I read  and think about the quote and the dream, it seems to be telling me that  giving out sweetness benefits everyone and especially the future generation.

Solving the riddle of the dream means, among other things, that the positions that the people who created the poisonous situations  have, are really not that important.   It helps me in the letting go process to realize that position and title have very little to do with transformation and change in society.   The real work of change is on the level of the rank and file. And it is really nice to know that I can use sweetness instead of fighting with others.    It does not surprise me that on my eldest daughter’s recent blog posts (http://mudspice.wordpress.com) that she talks about using sweetness.

How sweet it is!!!!!!