I awoke from a nightmare early this morning. Yes, yes…it was just a dream, but you know how those images stay with you? How the emotions stirred up in a dream haunt and disturb you in your waking life? This isn’t the first time I have had this dream…but it was the first time I tracked it to its source. It is sunrise, I am awake. And I am grateful.

Having slept poorly for the past few weeks I couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to wake up at 5:30 in the morning screaming and crying. I’ve woken up in part because my dreams have me work even harder than I have to in real life. Chasing down leads, following evidence, questioning my every move. It’s exhausting. And this morning I finally came face-to-face with the entity causing all this turmoil in my nightmares, the client I had been “serving” …a very cunning, old and yet wise giant spider. A Queen of Deception set on ensnaring me in her trap.

I am arachnophobic. So let that sit for a moment. And one of my greatest fears is being trapped.

I saw her through a slit in a wall after taking all her advice, after chasing down every lead. And there she was. In all her grotesque beauty. Disturbed and scared I woke up screaming “Never Again!” And in the dark before the dawn, I finally understand it.

In my waking life, just like in my sleeping life, I have been chasing down task after task.  But like in my dreams, I have been doing these things, not to serve my higher self, but instead to serve my fears. These tasks, these duties, these actions have not brought me to higher awareness or achievement, but have only served to reinforce the lowest of myself: my fears.

And my response, just like in my moments where I awoke screaming is the same:  never again. Never again will I pursue the “safe” path in order to assuage and protect my fears.  Never again will I second-guess my motives, my actions, my very life or lifestyle choices to serve and defend the basest of ideas. Never again.

Fear is the antithesis of love.  Once it enters into a relationship it stands in opposition of love…questioning it, distrusting it, suspecting it, doubting it.  But I don’t want to be known as a woman of fear.  I want to be known as a woman of love.  I want it to flow out of every corner of my being. It is what I want to give to my clients, my projects, my family, my enemies. I want Love to prevail.  Not fear.

All this chasing. All this turmoil had a purpose. And I will take it…

The dawn indeed is quite beautiful.