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| Stalking Acrylic, pastel on canvas 44″ x 30″ ©NanciHersh photo by Joe Solem Photograph |
I’ve been away from home for a while and when I come back I realize that I left my rabbit in the basement without food or water the whole time. Fearing what I would find, I race down the steps and look all around. Relieved, I see my rabbit- a little worse for wear, but alive. It seems my bunny in the basement foraged for food and water and somehow survived- despite my neglect.
I wake up in the middle of the night and realize that it wasn’t the first time I had this dream, or a very similar version of it. I decided I better write it down but don’t want to turn on the light. So I wrote it in the dark. completely.
and as I am writing I am thinking what could it mean? I did have a pet bunny (a few) and my most recent, Thunder, did live in my basement, which in this house, is where one of my studios is.
But then I had my aha! moment. I haven’t been down there in a while. My studio. I’ve been busy teaching, volunteering for this and that, and lots of other family stuff.
I have been working on some new paintings- upstairs, but downstairs is really my main work space. Where I draw, work on my sculptures out of wire and handmade paper, experiment, and have my etching press.
It’s like my laboratory-away from it all.
and I miss being there. According to dream interpretation.com– A basement represents your deep unconscious mind and instinct, and rabbits– “To see a rabbit in your dream signifies luck, magical power, and success.”
Any dream is open to interpretation, but I think this means I need to “feed” my creativity, no matter how busy I get. Make the time.
We need to pay attention to not only what/who we are responsible for, but what takes care of us; we need to trust our instinct and pay attention to what is important to us, to who we are.
Have you fed your bunny in the basement?
Wonderful story & painting! Loved it!
Dreams can be such a gift. I love the image of the foraging bunny, the spark of creativity being persistent.
@Nan Johnson- Thank you! This is a painting I did of my first (well actually 2nd) pet rabbit- but truly my muse for many years- Lambchop!
@Margaret Almon- Thank you… I love your sentence- “the spark of creativity being persistent” sometimes it has to be to pull me away from all the other stuff of life.