from our dreams. Besides  providing works of  aesthetic
value, creative writing  from dreams  can also promote a
greater awareness of the significance of the dreams.
      Another  important  way  of  giving  attention  to  our
dreams is  simply to think about them during the day. As
we  ponder  what  we  dreamed  during the night, we  will
often find that it stimulates further dream memories and
sometimes new ideas emerge. Thinking  about dreams is
often a  good  way  to  test  and develop our memory for
them, for we will find it easier to recollect  (without aid
of our dream diary) the dreams we recalled that morning
and  on  previous  mornings,  even  dreams  of  the  most
loosely connected sort.
    By keeping our dreams in mind, we invite our daytime
experiences  to  remind  us of our dream  images. It's no
accident   when   we   are   reminded    of  a   dream.  We
gradually discover the natural associative context of our
dreams and we find that our  past dreams provide us with
frequent metaphors for  our ongoing experiences. These
spontaneous,   meaningful  coincidences  often   lead  us
along a natural path of dream realization.
    Another  aspect of  giving  attention  to dreams  is  the
practice  of occasionally  talking over, or simply  telling,
our dreams with friends. Discussing our dreams helps us
to overcome any shyness we  may have about them and it
also  serves   to  give  them  an   added   importance.  The
opposite can also be true: a  dream  kept  purposefully  a
secret  develops  a  special  value  all  its  own. Yet  if we
dream of  a friend, discussing that dream with the person
gives us an opportunity to add a further dimension to our
friendship.  Although   it   may   be  true  that   we  dream
mostly  of  ourselves  and  that  the  friend  in  our dream
represents   some  aspect  of  ourselves,  discussing   the
dream  with   the  other  person   may  nevertheless yield
some surprises.
     The  care  we  take  to  retrieve  and  reflect  upon  our
dreams pays us rich rewards. Yet the creative potential in
our dream life will  develop  in reality  only to  the extent
that  we take  our  dreams  seriously  enough to  act  upon
them. As  we  gain  appreciation for our dreams, they will
cease  merely  to entertain  us. They will begin to provide

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