I keep having a horse show up in my daydreams. I don’t do my thinking only in words — I think a lot in pictures, metaphors, and symbols. Perhaps a lot of people think this way, I don’t know. But I definitely do.
And then my conscious mind has to interpret the symbols. It’s actually a lot of fun. When I was younger, from a small child through my college years, I thought in symbols and metaphors a lot. Then my mind became more literal and lingual. For many years, the metaphors were gone. I missed them. It was always fun interpreting the images.
And then out of nowhere, after years of literal thinking, along comes a horse. It was when I was feeling happy and free, my mind would show me a horse galloping with freedom and majesty. Sometimes I would be riding the horse, sometimes it was just the horse running in the wild.
At first I thought, “Oh that’s a pretty image” and give it no more thought. The metaphors had been missing from my life for so long. But the horse kept coming back again and again. Then I would be petting the horse, stroking him under the neck and feeling his muscle, strength, and his unbounded freedom and happiness with my hands.
I finally got the hint. My mind was giving me a symbol, or the universe was giving me a message. Something.
So I looked up horse animal totems on the net. However, none of the information I found helped. None of it corresponded to what I was feeling. There was a disconnect between the information on the web and the feelings inside me when this horse would visit.
Then, when the horse showed up again, majestic and beautiful — full of life and love — I simply asked him, “Why are you here?” And he said, “Let go.”
That’s all he would say whenever I asked a question. “Let go.”
Let go of the fear that’s holding me back. Let go of the lack of self-confidence. Let go of the cage I have kept myself in. Let go and live.
It’s nice to be thinking in metaphors again. I highly recommend it. Although the answers do sometimes come in riddles.