In the last unit of our Who Am I? course we had to create our own dream catchers. Before this final step we had to read a series of different texts that define dreams, learn and understand the mechanics of metaphors, write down and tell someone we trust a dream we had, and finally create a dream catcher that analyzes and tells the story of our dream. While completing all of these assignments we had to also ask ourselves questions like what is a dream? What is a metaphor? And how may we find meanings in dreams? These questions were not easy to answer. They took a lot of thought and hard work to figure out, but in the end of this unit I was happy that I was asked them because I learned a lot about myself and about what my dreams mean.
The center of my dreamcatcher is a rock charm of an eagle that was a gift from my friend purchased from a store in Evanston called Daves Rock Shop. One of the reasons that I chose to put this charm in the center of my dream catcher was because it is made out of a gemstone called Turquoise. I was told by my dad once that if you were given a Turquoise stone by someone who loves you, that stone would protect you from negative energy and bring good fortune. The Turquoise is the symbol of friendship. I also learned that Turquoise carries great wisdom of basic truth within it, and it is one of the oldest stones known. This is a stone that a person must learn to attune to instead of the stone attuning to the person. When I read about Turquoise everything I learned brought me great comfort and it seemed fitting that it should be in the center. I picked the eagle because it is an animal that is strong, independent, brave, and has wings. In my dream I run away maybe it is because I am restless and want to fly from place to place on my own. When I think about the eagle in the center of my dream catcher I am reminded of my childhood self in my dream.
My dream catcher is made out of a wooden ring, blue leather, beads, a feather, string covered with beeswax, and the Turquoise eagle charm. The dream catcher is designed so that the positive wishes and thoughts get passed through the circle in the middle. The bad thoughts and nightmares get caught in the holes of the web. The light and dark colored beads around the eagle charm in the middle were meant to symbolize ying and yang. Like I learned in unit 3; doubt makes us stronger. The beads allow it so that some doubt and fears get passed through the circle because that is just a part of life.
The web itself represents the fears that I want to be blocked. I visualize my life sometimes as if it were a very long road with bumps and turns and stop signs a long the way, those things I can handle. What scares me the most about the road is the holes. The gaps in life that many people slip into and never come back from. I am scared of falling into these blank spaces and never becoming who I want to be. These holes represent a lot of misfortune and hardships in my life, but seeing them now on my dream catcher gives me some peace of mind for they have become what they really are; just spots I can easily jump over.
My Dream Narrative:
When I was little I had this dream about running away from home a lot and sometimes it would be different places I’d run to but it was usually an abandoned amusement park. The rides were still working though yet no one was there. I was never scared in this dream and no matter what I would always bring my stuffed animal bunny along. I slept in a roller coaster cart and ate candy pebbles. No one ever came looking for me and sometimes I would ride on this train that didn’t run on tracks.