I dreamed I was tending to a frog. What has stayed with me is an image of the frog in an open, circular container. Inside, there is a dry stick and a rock. The container is translucent, a pale blue. The frog has yellow spots. I’m holding this container above the mother garden (see “Mother Tree”). In this moment, I am expected to give the frog to an estranged family member. She is pregnant in the dream. Now that the moment has come, I do not want to — the frog is precious to me.

I’ve been practicing the Backward Review, or Ruchschau, before bed. It’s a practice of replaying one’s movements through the day backwards, from above. One of the results may be that details from dreams linger longer. This has been especially helpful for me, since I often don’t have to chance to record my dreams upon waking.

This dream, I see as I record it, is rich with symbolism. Frogs are primordial creatures. Their correlations are that of womb, water, fertility, and life. They may offer gifts of cleansing and purification. Mother echoes through the dream in the Venus stump and her scars, the open container and its colors, in the tenderness and the sacrifice. In the dream, I’ve carried uphill, from the wetland into the sunny garden, a guardian of the subconscious.