author's note: The following occurred during a Women's Dream Quest at the First Congregational Church in March of this year.
In the sanctuary I dream of my husband punching his brother. It is something he has wanted to do for a long time. I wonder how he feels after he’s done it. Does it give him the satisfaction he anticipated? Does he experience remorse, guilt, sorrow? Does violence ever result in true satisfaction or does it merely allow a breakthrough to what lies beneath it?
After writing the dream, I go into the men’s room and find blood on the sink. Frank red blood against white porcelain. I’m shocked and mildly disturbed. It is a small amount of blood; thinly covering less than one square inch. I look at my own hands and am surprised to see broken skin and blood on the knuckle of my ring finger on my left hand. The blood on the sink did not come from my hand. The wound on my hand is too small to have produced even that much blood. Did the wound appear while I slept? I’m shaken to realize how thin the veil between the worlds is. I dream of a fist connecting with a jaw and my knuckle bleeds.
