The past two mornings I have awakened hearing Mumford & Sons Little Lion Man playing in my head. Specifically the part of the chorus that goes, “I really fucked it up this time”. I do not particularly like this song so I know that it is meant as a message more than me just singing a song in my head. It has not been a nice message to wake up to. I keep wondering, “What did I mess up?”

Finding Meaning in the Present

Perhaps the song is a message from my subconscious validating the realizations I have been having lately. There are many but the most important of them, I think, is that I need to look not at my past or my future but at my present to find what it is I am looking for. It is right there in front of me, has always been, yet I never see it for thinking it must be something else.

It is like going to the pantry to find a jar of peanut butter. You look everywhere for it, even looking in places you know it would never be. But you can never find it. You become exasperated and ask someone for help. They look in the pantry and laugh. They point to it. It is right in front of you, so close it could bite you. That is what I am being told is happening to me.

Part of finding what I am looking for, that blasted jar of peanut butter hidden right in front of me, is to inspect the present moment, to be aware of the moment in the moment all the time. This is when the answers will reveal themselves. This is also where the work needs to be done for it is the present moment that I most avoid.

I have been thinking of how uncomfortable I am most often during the day, especially when I have nothing to do. I am told, “Just be” and I try and succeed most times but it seems to take a lot of work. I go through periods where I do well and then fall back into old habits and again find myself feeling that really uncomfortable feeling. It literally feels like I am uncomfortable being in my own skin. I don’t recall feeling this way in the past. I did feel anxious, but this isn’t the same feeling. This feeling is odd to me; familiar but unfamiliar. I am told I need to relax into that feeling to understand. I will try and do better at that, but so far I cannot seem to completely relax into it. It really feels not quite right.

Sea Lion

In addition to having these realizations (there are others I am not yet ready to mention), I am sleeping very deeply and waking frequently throughout the night. My dreams are odd and make no sense to me. For example, I had one dream where I was watching someone mold a person out of sand. The person looked like me, only a younger version. Last night I had another really odd one.

In the dream I was returning to my childhood home. Oddly, the new owners of the home were the new owners of the house I just sold last year. They were having a party and we arrived in the driveway. It was packed with people and I was looking around at the changes that had been made. I wandered around with my husband, looking at the old front yard and seeing a leather sofa sitting outside. It was in good condition and a nice cream color. I was shocked, commenting that it was so wasteful and wanting to take he sofa home but deciding against it. I also saw that they were painting the walls of the front yard (yeah, it had walls, weird) but had changed their mind and so there were two different colors, one on top of the other. I commented on this as well, wondering what they were doing.

We went to the old garage my dad use to keep his old Corvette in. Inside was an old Mustang that was being rebuilt. I commented that the new owner must need lots of things to keep him busy since he didn’t work. I then saw that sitting atop the Mustang was a creature. It appeared to be a mermaid or something like it. It was small, like a child, and had near mummified hands and limbs. It looked dead and we inspected it. My husband told me, “It’s a sea lion, see” and pointed to what appeared to be a golden mane down its back. I saw this and thought how odd that it was called this as it was very obviously some kind of deformed human.

I watched it intently because it intrigued me. It was disgusting but I could not stop looking at it. It’s hands were both reaching up into the air, fingers spread, and its little eyes were wide open and frozen. It appeared to be garbed in heavy cloth of some sort, which is why it seemed to have a huge mane.

Then I swear I saw its hand move. I pointed it out to my husband. It was then I saw a child with us, a small, blonde one. I ushered the child away from the sea lion and towards the house. We entered but the child would not come in. We joined the party but I kept thinking of the sea lion. I went to the door, suspicious, and saw the sea lion had walked to the entry and was standing near the door, it’s mummified hand outstretched toward me. I saw the child and was afraid for him/her (not sure on gender) but shut the door. I told the owner, “It’s alive! It’s at the door!” I felt very nervous about it being outside and alive. The owner smiled and calmly said, “It just needs attention”.

Interpretation

I am not really certain what this dream means. I believe it is likely that I was being asked to attend to a part of myself that was neglected: the sea lion. A sea lion, or seal, symbolizes playfulness and the ability to have fun and enjoy life. In other words, the inner child. The state of the sea lion suggests that this part of me has been horribly neglected. I was curious about this part of me but at the same time very cautious. I did not like that it was “alive” and there was a bit of fear and horror that came with it. Then I was told the sea lion just needed attention, so also does my inner child need attention.The blond child that was with the sea lion suggests that the inner child symbolism is accurate. I believe the setting of the dream, back in my childhood home, is also symbolic of me being urged to return to childhood innocence.

Mermaids represent femininity and so it could be that this sea lion represents my feminine side since I initially thought it was a mermaid. As I consider this, I wonder about some thing. It could be that my childhood contains something that is lost to me; a memory that I hid from myself to protect myself. This seems probable because I struggle to remember much of my childhood from around the age of 7 to 9. It is also probable that there may have been sexual abuse, though I do not remember any. My sister told me in 2003 that she was sexually abused by our neighbor. She told me I told her he had touched me inappropriately, too, but I have no memory of it. None. I do recall going into his house with my younger sister and when we got to the bedroom (we were looking for him) feeling a very bad feeling and to not go there. But that is the extent of my memories of him. So I wonder if perhaps I am being asked to look into my past and find memories buried deep. I honestly don’t think there is anything major there, but then again, who knows? We will see. If it is meant to be found, it will be.