"Please Let This Sink In!" I said.

Yet another revelation at the kitchen sink: still my favorte place to think.

I was  using a fork to dislodge the pieces of zucchini that were clogging the drain. I bought one of those smell-good-drainy things at the dollar store last month; the drain only smelled nice for a few seconds out of its plastic wrap, then it was garbage-scented  as usual.

So, not only did it not smell nice, but it let too much stuff fall through it. Ick ick ick.

It must have been bothering me more than I thought because I dreamed that someone brought me a shiny new pea-strainer. It was still in a package lying on the counter in my dream.

Today when I got home from church i started to wash the dishes and balked because of the standing water, a by product of a clogged drain. I started looking around for the new one until I realized the new strainer was only a dream.

Now, my unconscious and I have a pretty good understanding about our dream-language. After 51 years of cinematic dreaming I have learned to interpret the peculiar language of puns and symbols we communicate with, so right away I wondered if the strainer was my unconscious way of re enforcing my New Year's Resolution. If so, then I feel relieved that my conscious and unconscious agree on at least that one thing.

My resolution was this: Measure twice, cut once.

I spend way way too much time untangling the messes I make because I get so eager to do something that I don't take the time to measure and think about what I want to do. I am so afraid of losing the idea that I rush to do what I am not really prepared to do. This is a tendency that shows up in my knitting and other crafts, and in my relationships, eating and exercising, and pretty much Everything else in my life. So I want to remember to measure twice, cut once.

If I think I have something brilliant to say I will measure it (internally) twice, and even more times if what I want to say seems especially dazzling because it is those crazy dazzling things that hurt the most when my foot goes into my mouth.

This goal is going to take a pretty good strainer. A cheap. plastic, flowery one will not do. I need a good old fashioned, sturdy pea-trap if I want to keep garbage from clogging up the flow of  dishwater.

Water has been my unconscious's favorite symbol for truth in my life---we have used it for many many years. So the flow of dishwater symbolizes Truth: the flow of truth.

Water, then is about letting the truth which comes from a clean source wash away what needs to be washed away with the understanding that some garbage needs to be taken out long before it reaches the sink. And being the fallible human being that I am, I will need a good strainer to catch what I miss.

So, my New Year's resolution is firm(ish): to measure twice and cut once. I resolve to measure my words and actions in a way that makes it easier to pick out the big refuse  and put in directly in the trash and to trust my sturdy trash-trapper to catch what I miss.

But what did my unconscious mean when she used the brand new, shiny stainless steel pea-trap in my sink dream?

I say the strainer implied prayer and meditation. I need a new practice of both. I feel called to learn and practice centering prayer, and i resolve to start today.

I only pray that I let it all sink in and that I remember tomorrow what seems so obvious and do-able today.