Hot Dogs, Applesauce, and Butterflies

Happy Fourth of July to those celebrating today.

It’s a good holiday, but I’m sort of neutral about it.

I’m glad people get an extra day off from work—at least those who do. One of my lawn service guys is out cutting my grass right now, so he’s not enjoying that benefit.

Fireworks? They’re fine, but I enjoyed them much more as a kid.

Which brings me to hot dogs.

Apparently today is the day the most hot dogs are eaten in the U.S. I’m pretty neutral on hot dogs, too. Occasionally I’ll get the Costco $1.50 hot dog and soda special. It’s a good hot dog, and how can you beat that price? You can’t.

I used to eat vegetarian hot dogs, too, and they were surprisingly good. Maybe I’ll revisit those this summer.

But what about applesauce?

Do you eat applesauce on any sort of regular basis?

I don’t.

Yet it became one of the strangest symbols that appeared for me at the International Association of the Study of Dreams conference a couple of weeks ago.

I attended a workshop on precognition and its relationship to dreams.

Personally, I’ve had several dreams that later seemed to come true. It was as if some part of me was living slightly ahead of my conscious awareness, somehow accessing information that wouldn’t become meaningful until two or more years later.

It’s fascinating.

Maybe it has something to do with our understanding of time. Maybe “now” isn’t quite what we think it is. I don’t know. Perhaps one day science will understand these experiences better.

Or perhaps they’ll remain a mystery.

Either way, I’m fascinated by them.

The workshop facilitator was a long-time IASD member, and she was a hoot. She led us through a self-guided meditation and active imagination exercise.

At first, I’ll admit it…

I was kind of phoning it in.

Maybe I was tired. Maybe distracted.

But eventually I settled in and let the exercise unfold.

I found myself floating in a canoe-like boat on a beautiful tropical bay—perhaps Hawaii. I drifted toward open water while staying close to the shoreline on my left. Another peninsula stretched out to my right, giving the bay the shape of a crescent moon.

Earlier she had suggested imagining precognitive insights as crystals falling from the sky.

So I did.

Snowflake-like crystals drifted downward, and my little boat glided beneath them until I caught one.

The crystal contained exactly one word.

Applesauce.

WTH?

The facilitator brought us back from the exercise almost immediately afterward and asked for a volunteer to share.

Nobody raised a hand.

So she spun around in a circle with her pencil extended like a pointer.

When she stopped…

It was pointing directly at me.

“How about you?” she asked.

I laughed and said something like, “Dang it…okay. This is a little embarrassing.”

I described the tropical bay, the falling crystal…

…and then delivered the punchline.

Applesauce.

She asked what applesauce made me think of.

Oddly enough, my very first thought was potato pancakes, because that’s about the only time I ever eat applesauce anymore—usually at Oktoberfest celebrations.

But I didn’t say that.

Instead, I shared my second association.

You should stir applesauce before serving it.

She smiled.

“Then perhaps,” she said, “this will make sense the next time you find yourself stirred up.”

Hmm.

I thought that was a pretty good interpretation.

As it turned out…

She was right.

The very next day I attended another workshop, this one on active imagination.

Toward the end of the session, I saw that I was receiving a phone call (my ringer was off).

I let it go to voicemail.

But whatever was on the other end…

It stirred me up.

I’m still processing that experience, but I believe it pointed toward two ongoing themes in my life:

• Wanting a particular type of relationship in my life, that was very clear

• My continuing desire to integrate the different dimensions of my life into a more coherent whole.

Then, on the final full day of the conference, our dream circle facilitator began talking about caterpillars.

Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar dissolves into a sort of goo before reforming as a butterfly.

I shared my ongoing search for the meaning of the Applesauce symbol.

The facilitator’s description of the caterpillar turning into goo immediately reminded me of…well…

Applesauce.

Perhaps the symbol was pointing toward transformation.

That interpretation resonated.

Then everyone in the group shared one of their dreams.

One participant described being reunited with loved ones.

In his dream, sitting in front of him was an enormous potato pancake.

Before we wrapped up, I couldn’t resist asking him,

“Did you have applesauce with it?”

The whole group laughed.

“No,” he replied, “but the cutlery was very important.”

Cutlery.

That instantly brought me back to my encounter with Aragorn during the Landscape of Dreams workshop (see What Would Aragorn Do? Parts 1–3).

In that active imagination, Aragorn’s sword—his cutlery, if you will—transformed into a guitar.

To me, that suggested that another piece of the Applesauce puzzle might lie in the calling Aragorn had already pointed me toward.

That interpretation felt right, too.

Now you may be wondering…

What does any of this have to do with your own life?

I’m not sure that it does.

But this much I do know.

Our psyche is constantly sending us signals.

The real question is whether we pause long enough to notice them.

If we do, they may reveal a key that unlocks better decisions, clearer direction, or a deeper understanding of ourselves.

And perhaps that inner knowing is one more way we develop the psychological freedom to live our truth and spend our time more intentionally.

Picture yourself floating in a small boat on a beautiful bay.

Shining objects are falling from the sky.

Reach up…

Catch one.

What does it tell you?