Are You Ready for the Mogwai?

You do with Mogwai what your society has done with all of nature's gifts!  You do not understand.  You are not ready.  Perhaps someday, you may be ready.  Until then, Mogwai will be waiting.

-- Mr. Wing, "Gremlins"

My brother emailed me that quote in response to this email I sent about a dream I had: "A cow was walking up to a mogwai. The gremlins were in the forest. The cows were confused. I think it was another planet. Aliens or horses, or both, were observing this. And there was narration about these mogwai turning into gremlins."

I wish I could remember what the narration said. I'd forgotten about this dream until recently. I dreamed it more than three years ago, and find myself wondering what it meant or if it meant nothing at all. Before hearing back from my brother, I wondered if the confused cow represented me. And the mogwai represented the guy I'd been considering getting involved with that summer. And the gremlins in the forest were my demons and fears. Or maybe I was the mogwai, and the cows represented all the people out there in the world who I thought wouldn't understand, or would be confused, by the choices I was considering making, or already had made. But what about the horses and aliens? They were the observers. And that's really where I felt my own presence in this dream, as an observer. Maybe each "character" represented some part of me. Or maybe it wasn't about me at all.

And when I read that quote from my brother, I smiled.  I could be the mogwai offering some gift that others were not ready to receive. I could be the cow, confused and not ready for the gifts of the mogwai. I could be the observer. At different times. Or all at once. I liked what that quote was saying and asking. And now I like that it's making me think less about my dream and more about nature's gifts, and the gifts that we have to share with each other, and how sometimes we just don't understand and are not ready to receive. Sometimes others aren't ready to receive us.

If I have a gift to share, whether it's something I'm teaching or writing or just simply by being, but you aren't ready to receive it, then you might appear to be like a confused cow. I don't mean that to be rude. But it's true. And I know I can be the cow too. A little curious, but not so interested. Or seemingly ready to receive, but just can't see clearly, just not quite understanding.  But the more I  come to realize that gifts are all around us, the more I consciously seek out the gifts in any and all situations, from any and all people, and from nature, the easier it gets to recognize and receive and understand those gifts. 

And the more I treat others, and nature, with love, respect, and gratitude, the more likely they are to remain cute and cuddly, just like the mogwai, rather than turning into those scary destructive gremlins. ;) So if not being treated that way by others, we need to handle ourselves with extra care to keep our own little gremlins in check. Then again, there's plenty to be learned from those gremlins, from our shadows. So when they do emerge, feel what needs to be felt. Heal what needs to be healed. Sometimes a gremlin is a blessing in disguise; sometimes the gremlin is the gift. 

Whether mogwai or gremlin, are you ready to receive?

© 2012 Rebecca Clio Gould. All rights reserved.