Crossing the Bridge of living Lions in a Storm
This is a personal story and a dream I had a few month ago, when I was still living in Berlin.
Right now I am living in the city of lions and angels. I´m in Venice, Italy, working as a dog sitter, which is a surprisingly healing experience.
The whole summer and a good part of fall 2022, I was busy with breaking down my household and my Berlin life. It was a transforming process of pain, petrifying fright and the blind hope for a life beyond my trap that made me dare it. My life in Berlin was stale and in a dead and street in truly every aspect. As I believe that universe has a way of redirecting our path, I must assume that things got really unbearable in Berlin, in order to get me out of there: and on the road into a life I should be living instead.
Right now, on January 1st 2023, here in Venice, my life before I left seams unreal and not worthy giving it any more attention. As if it was a pile of old clothes I had left behind. I´m really astonished how quick it happened, given that I left Germany in late October 2022 only. I´m not missing my many possessions I left behind either. What I took with me is my old Dream Diary I had been writing for many years. The diary is full now, there is no more space to write new dreams into it. Why did I take it with me then? Because I am still in awe to read my old dreams from many years ago. The way my dreams have been announcing events that happened much later, the deep picturesque symbolic way they have been describing my life situations, long before I understood them is still fascinating me. In retrospect, this dream diary is still surprising me with its insights and intricate mystery and symbolism. I do not always remember my dreams though. Only sometimes. I think that many nightly stories/dreams are just a banal refurbishing of the daytime occurrences and undissolved issues. But from time to time, a big, dramatic, poetic and colorful, emotionally loaded dream occurs, that`s fully remembered in the morning and it is impacting our day. Those are the dreams I am writing down.
This particular dream I have dreamt somewhere in this summer in Berlin. I had not bought a ticket out of the country yet, but I knew that I would be leaving. In the dream I was in Hamburg, not my hometown Berlin, standing at the train station Damtor Bahnhof. Right by the train station there was the big broad stream, the river Elbe, that runs through Hamburg. In actuality the river is not by the train station, but elsewhere, yet in my dream it`s right there. I am wandering up and down the station, that opens up to a domestic beach landscape like its usual on the German North Sea coast, but somehow i cant find peace and joy, I am restless. Suddenly I see the huge iron bridge over the stream and I decide to cross it to the other side. I cannot see the other bench because the river is very broad and it`s a foggy rainy day. So I get on the bridge starting to cross over but a huge storm and rain comes up. No matter what, I keep on walking with my suitcase, I need to get over to the other side. Bent over against the wind I walk on, but suddenly, in the middle of the bridge, in the roaring storm, the bridge starts to shake. To my shock the bridge is now organic, made of a living creature. It`s a gigantic lion the bridge turned into, and the piers are enormous lion legs and feet, reaching into the water to the ground. The bridge is alive and it breathes and roars. I am not really afraid, just amazed. I`m walking on a huge, roaring against the storm, lion.
Here the dream stops. I don`t know how it continued and I don`t think that its important. Only this morning I understood this dream.
So here´s the reality check: in early October I had bought a ticket out of Germany. The flight out was from Hamburg. I had arrived at the very station Damtor by train and I flew out a few hours later. The first 7 weeks I had spent in a rural area in the Serbian hills, dealing with 3 gigantic dogs, St Bernard, that were like lions. I did well to my surprise, animals and I are a great match as it turned out. Then, 3 weeks ago, on an early morning in a bloody cold rainy storm, exactly like in my dream, I landed in Venice. A city where the lions are present everywhere. I came from a city having a bear in its coat of arms, here the lion of St Marco is running the show. In the 3 weeks since I am on the lagoon island Venezia, I underwent a deep emotional transformation. I think this is the reason I had to come here, and my stay is not over yet. Long before I could know it, my soul, my subconsciousness, knew that I would come here. True power is emotional power and I was in a lot of pain I have been supressing in order to live my life. Here in Venice I am putting my arms down. The unconditional love the dogs I am caring for are giving me, and the love I feel for them is my medicine. The lion, symbol of the evangelist Marc, the patron of Venice, is starting to show me why I came here. I don`t know the whole story yet, but I guess soon I will.
#dreams #dreamtime #venice #lions #workaway
