Even though I was safe in the sacred space of my oak tree, I was still having nightmares. Being in the claws of a predator will do that to a squirrel. In my dreams I sometimes fought back by punching the hawk right between the eyes, but even then I’d wake up in a puddle of sweat. One day I decided that I should do something about it. Every night before going to bed I practiced thirty minutes of meditation and asanas (like Warrior I and Downward Facing Squirrel), rubbed sleep balm on the fluffy bit in front of my ears and drank a cup of bedtime tea. It didn’t help. Then the idea of a dreamcatcher came to me. Simple living means making your own, so the next day I gathered a weeping willow branch from the pond, nine feathers from the beach and a bit of old string. I tied the willow, spun a web, attached the feathers and hung the dreamcatcher from the ceiling. Occasionally a bad dream slips through, but then I just think of all the ones it does catch. You only need to belief in magic for it to work!
