dreaming about the keebler elf (my interpretation added at the end)

My hilarious husband sent me this image a bit ago following my a.m. dream report in which I told him the dream I had just before waking this morning.

In the dream someone had given me a very large herd of driving horses and equipment, and I had a brief time in which to find a place to move them. I was working with a realtor, looking for a piece of land large enough to provide plenty of pasture for this herd of big horses, and she talked me into going to see a place she thought might have "potential."

Guess where she took me?  Apparently, the Keebler Elf died, and left behind his mansion, many-acre property, and elf factories. We arrived at the very stylized mansion, and she convinced me I had to see the inside to get the full sense of the potential.

The inside was everything you might imagine the Keebler Elf's home would be: curlicue molding of many colors, elf-like decorations dripping from every inch of wall and ceiling space, and all the accoutrement that an elf might end up with by the end of his long elf life.

"There is no way I can live here!" I said to the realtor, who assured me there was a HUGE market for elf decor and that I would make enough selling the stuff to collectors to pay for the entire property.

Still not convinced, she took me outside and instead of showing me the land where I might house the driving horses, she led me to a little gravel lane, which had tiny elf factories on both sides. "All the equipment is still in place!" she said. "You could sell it or put it back into operation and have a working farm that pays for everything you need!"

I woke up feeling like I had been through an ordeal, and like I had a huge decision to make - horses needed a home! There was a property that would allow it to happen! But the private estate of the Keebler Elf????  I just wasn't sure if I could do it.

And I'm still not sure. However, it has kept me chuckling to myself all day long.

(please note that I am hereby starting to label my posts, in a very belated effort at creating some order here on camera-obscura!)


And now, let me write my interpretation of this wild and crazy dream, after it's been sitting in my subconscious/conscious most of the day today:

The big driving horses being offered, if I can only find a way to house them, are not horses at all, but "big dreams" - likely writing related since I am in the process of launching a "small" press. In my mind, big driving horses are powerful and capable of huge forward motion. Galloping forward, in a big way. But that estate is too small - the mansion is packed with elf stuff, the factories are too little.

The Keebler Elf - well, who knows, really, where that crazy image came from, but my guess is that my unconscious was really trying to knock me over the head with something so outlandish I couldn't fail to pay attention.

The Keebler Elf is small, has died, and has left behind a huge "field of possibility" - but much of what exists there is useless to me - crowded and gaudy and not my "size." I could make the connection to big publishing here, but that might be pushing it. :)

I'm thinking the Keebler Elf also represents the part of me that is being cautious, keeping my dream of a "small" press "small" - and not allowing for the "potential" the realtor promises is indeed there: she says there is a huge market for the stuff in the mansion, the factories can be sold or used, in other words, make use of what you have, get it all out there so it can work for you. Go for it!

There's more to be said, but it's subtle stuff that would only make sense with a longer explanation - but I am reminded of the Keebler Elf commercials that were so prevalent on TV when I was younger. Lots of making and baking and sending those cookies out the door to be sold.

All that activity, all those cookies - from a little, tiny tree.  What's small can still have a BIG impact. And, elves have magic!

Isn't it pretty fabulous what our unconscious can use to get our attention? If this dream had incorporated any other symbol I would have forgotten about it by now. But the Keebler Elf made me stop and pay attention.