Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

 

Once a month on a Sunday morning I get together with a group of people to practice yoga and meditation.  Our group meets in a building that’s used during the week to provide social care, community, and youth work services.  This is in Dublin, Ireland.

The reception area has an exchange of books and this morning I found some beautiful philosophy and spiritual books.  One of the books includes one of my very favorite poems by William Butler Yeats, who was Irish.

The poem’s final words are “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” 

These words were an apt reminder for me to not tread on my own dream.  Not to rush my dream and not to keep wishing I could move faster in my dream.

These beautiful words will resonate differently with all of us depending on where we are in our lives. 

Sometimes we can inadvertently wish our dream on others who are close to us.  We can also wish other dreams for them because we think they would suit them. 

But it can be difficult to know our own dream let alone to presume to know what another person’s dream should be.

Here’s the poem in full:

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

By William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Warmest wishes for your dreams and the dreams of those you love.

Mary

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