Cello arm

Napping after an exhausting day, before an evening rehearsal, I had a disturbing dream about my right arm. It had lost all structure and was reduced to a thin, limp nylon cord (like a fat guitar string).

I was terrified, wondering if I had contracted a dread disease like MS (I recently read Teri Garr’s autobiography about her career and her battle with MS). As I wondered how I would be able to play the cello with this insubstantial arm, I noticed that I still had a little hand with tiny fingers at the endof my nylon cord arm. As I wriggled my tiny fingers, my hand and arm began to plump up again, like air filling a balloon, and my arm was normal by the time I forced myself awake.

My arm felt strong through rehearsal, but I was worried that the dream was some sort of warning about problems to come. A supportive friend offered a more creative interpretation. She said that I had been through a lot lately and was not practicing as much as I wanted to, and that the resolution of the problem (the plumping up of my arm) within the dream was an excellent sign, a symbol of the healing, centering role of the cello in my life, and my power to make this dream a reality.

I’ll go with that.