Demons

Last night I dreamed of demons.

In the dream I received a large box from an anonymous sender. Inside was a note saying that the contents were a gift for me. With puzzled anticipation, I peeled back the packing material and found many mugs of different sizes. They were all the same, shaped as the head of a demon with its mouth wide open in a silent scream.

Another note underneath the mugs said they would turn into real demons at some unknown future date and time. Meanwhile, I could give the mugs away and spare myself the agony of their attack when they awoke. The catch was that I could give only one mug to each person I deemed worthy of receiving it, so I had to spread them around. It was up to me to determine that the person was sufficiently evil to deserve having a demon, and what size demon – what size mug – was appropriate. Any that were left over when the day came for them to awaken would be mine.

After giving the situation some thought after I woke up the following morning, it seemed to me that the person who sent the demons to me was trying to tell me that I was focusing on darkness instead of the light and was in danger of being overcome by it.

I also realized that by giving the demon mugs to other people, I was condemning them to the demons’ gift of agony in order to spare myself. Only by keeping them all could I absolve myself of such an onerous and unacceptable sin.

Lately I have fallen into the trap of allowing myself to become victim to worry and negative thinking. It appears that I have some work to do.