For perhaps the first time, I received a message in a dream.

A direct message in words, that is, not an obscure image that needs creative decoding.

The message said:

It’s okay to want people back for different amounts of time, a day, a week, forever. It’s okay to want new people to entertain. It’s okay to try new foods.

Via text message, I discussed the dream with my artist friend L.

L: Nice dream.

Me: What’s the deal with new foods?

L: In the Cluny museum, there is a group of tapestries called La Dame a la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn). It is a representation of the senses being awakened and engaged. But the last one is called “a mon seul desir” (to my only desire). Maybe you are totally engaged in the process of awakening and the dream is not about the new sushi at Dream Sushi restaurant.

Me: Many years ago, Aunt Sylvia took me to the Cloisters museum near her home in New York City to see the Hunting of the Unicorn tapestries. They are similar. Supposedly the unicorn in those tapestries represents Jesus.

L: Well unicorns can symbolize many ideas. I like to think they are the hidden side of nature. Something we lost, but can still get back to when we close our eyes.

Me: You know I just got it for the first time about unicorns! As imaginary creatures, their whole job is to be symbolic. Like Jesus and other religious symbols.

Privately, I scolded myself. All those years of studying analytic philosophy! All those discussions about what words refer to! All those questions about the meaning of words that name things that don’t exist! We always used “unicorn” as our prime example. After all that, I still had only a childlike understanding of the unicorn: a fairy tale animal.

Over and over again we asked: Why are these words that name nonexistent things so stubborn? Why can’t we rational, scientific people talk without using them? Now I know why: because they are filled with meaning. They are placeholders for elusive meaning, changing meaning, growing meaning. No silly real world referent gets in the way of their work of helping us think, rethink, transcend and grow. They are pure symbols.

How could I not have understood?

Later that morning, I scribbled in my journal:

So when people say, “I found Jesus” or “I found God,” they might have in mind whatever hidden spiritual dimension just opened to them. Conscience, love, philosophy, grandeur of nature…whatever! To different people, the words “Spirituality” and “God” might mean any one of many new possible perspectives on reality.

Early that afternoon, I visited my friend D.  She is in a late stage of a degenerative disease, consciously preparing to leave this world. D showed me some recent artwork exploring her new insights, and thus reminded me of my dream. So I told her about the dream, the texts, the tapestries, the unicorn, and the whole chain of associations.

D: It’s all one continuous spiritual awakening!

Late that afternoon, I visited my friend B. Getting great care in the hospital, B feels like she is on holiday from domestic responsibilities. She has developed several new perspectives. The conversation lingered a bit on new perspectives, so I shared my insight of the day: dream, symbols, and spiritual awakening.

B: You should go to a new restaurant and have a spiritual awakening!

Early that evening, my friend H. stopped by to visit the new kitten and share a cup of sweet chai. She asked about my day, and I told her: dream, message, texts, tapestries, visits, and insights.

H: New symbols, new foods, new people, new pleasures, new possibilities.

Symbolize away! Meet the unicorn of your dreams. The unicorn of awakening into transition, the unicorn of being served food by others, the unicorn of soft kittens and sweet chai.

It’s okay to try new things.