Recently, I had two dreams back-to-back that both featured me eating gummy bears. This struck me as odd. I like gummy bears, but they’re not something I usually seek out. Being more the organic dark chocolate type, they’re not a candy that typically crosses my mind. I’ve always meant to get better at interpreting and honoring my dreams, though, so I decided to buy some gummies and eat a few each day in the hopes that the “wisdom of the gummy bears” would come through.
I’m on day ten now of devouring about three bears a day and so far, no lightning bolts. I used to think I preferred the green and orange ones, but now I’m pretty sure they all taste mostly the same. I still enjoy squishing them from top to bottom and then watching them return to shape, so there’s that. And they’re darn cute, especially piled so colorfully on top of each other, so I confess it makes me happy to look at them.
The kid in me who still believes in magic imagined this would play out like a Hollywood movie. I’d follow the message in my dreams, buy the gummy bears, and have an out-of-body experience. Or maybe one of them would start speaking to me, telling me which direction to take next. Or possibly, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I’d enter into some fanciful Gummy world and learn what matters most.
When those scenarios started to seem unlikely, I wondered if this was an exercise in embracing my inner child. Or a simple reminder to seek more joy in life. My son thinks the bears in my dreams represented my three kids who are all quite different, but all loved gummy bears.
Here’s what came to me today . . . I’ve been working lately on mindfulness. Notice I said “working” because that’s how it feels most of the time. Maybe this was the universe’s way of making mindfulness fun. After all, I’m not mindlessly downing a handful of candy. I’m deliberately removing the bag each day from the pantry; choosing out three different colors (even though I know they taste mostly the same); squishing them first, like a four-year old; and then eating them with intention, hope, and love. That’s mindfulness, is it not?
So, what is the wisdom of the gummy bears? I think they are saying, “Be here now.”
Either that, or it’s the sugar talking. You decide.
By Teresa R. Funke
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