5/5/1985,
I dreamt last night of my childhood home. The kitchen led into the back hall. There I wanted to open the door into the back yard where junk was left lying around. But a clocking hen, hatching eggs with dogged resistance, blocked my way. I tried to lift her aside to open the back door. She pecked my hands. I retreated. This happened a few times. Then I woke up.
I had applied to do a psychology course in Rome. I received a letter accepting my application yesterday. From supervising seminarians in cross-cultural training I could recognize some personal difficulties that hindered them. However, I wasn’t equipped to help them. So I hoped this course would equip me.
That helped to explain the dream. I was in two minds about doing the psychology course. I consciously wanted to do it. But it would involve examining my hidden selfish behavior and motivation. I would be opening a door to the dark side of my personality. It would mean going into the back yard of the unconscious to claim my personal junk.
I shared my ambivalence with an Indian friend, expecting sympathy and reassurance. Instead, Sunita lectured me about doing my duty, and not coming back to Fiji until I had completed the course. I was taken aback! Then I realized that this was the Indian cultural way of supporting the sense of purpose of a wavering friend. It was time to push aside with courage that pecking hen, that didn’t want to be disturbed, and to risk checking the junk!
by Fr. Frank Hoare
