Bob and I live out in the country on a wooded five acres. The only Starbucks is about 20+ miles into Albany or its suburbs.
When Bob and I travel, one of our traveling treats is to stop at a Starbucks for his coffee and my chai latte. Oh, and chocolate croissants.
Recently, I had a fragment of a dream—you know, one of those very, very short dreams, the kind you are tempted to dismiss as unimportant or not having enough to work with.
I call this dream fragment, of course, “Looking for Chocolate Croissants.”
In the dream, I am walking around a supermarket much like Wegmans, in an aisle where I expect to find chocolate croissants. I know I’ve looked around. I walk around people, looking a little more.
There are no chocolate croissants to be found. I feel frustrated. End of dream.
Okay, you may say, what’s the big deal? Maybe I’m just craving a chocolate croissant.
But, as I tell clients and students, like that chocolate croissant, dreams are many-layered.
Perhaps one layer, the waking reality layer, is that I really need a croissant fix and can’t easily get one where I live. But, in waking reality, when Bob and I head to Maine a few days later, we stop to get our treat, chocolate croissants et al.
So, then, on another layer, what is this dream about?
Well, what is a chocolate croissant to me? How would I describe it to someone?
It’s a flaky, delicate, delicious, many-layered pastry or baked good made of flour and butter with dark chocolate inside. Eating one is a delight for my mouth and my soul and makes me smile, especially when I have one with a chai latte. It’s treat and reward, one I get to enjoy usually when I travel away from home to visit other places, friends and family.
Thinking about that, here is at least one level of meaning and message I think the dream has for me.
That a familiar source of pleasure, my usual way of treating or rewarding myself to something yummy and delightful, is not currently available to me. Or, that looking for that treat in the usual places will not get me what I want. I need to ask myself, what am I not able to reward myself with in the usual way? What delight or treat is unavailable to me at this time? What is many-layered with a delicious dark center in my life, especially my creative work, that I can’t get right now?
Pretty intense message for such a short dream. And a good example of why you want to pay attention to your dreams, no matter how short or long, no matter how silly or irrelevant they might seem.
So, what is your chocolate croissant? And are you finding it? Are you looking for it in the right places?
And maybe more importantly, are you treating yourself to it too infrequently?