I am talking with a successful but somewhat overweight black woman entrepreneur about how important it is to retain good employees, and suggesting ideas on how to do that. My suggestions are neither original nor specific but she receives them enthusiastically, praising me for my insight and brilliance. Her responses seem out of proportion to the value of my suggestions and I attempt to point out that she already knows more than I do but she does not pay much attention.

Now the woman is lying on her back on the floor and I am lying on top of her as if we are having sex but we are both fully clothed and it does not feel erotic. She is wearing a long dress with some pattern in black, orange and red. Our faces are just inches apart and we are feeding each other pieces of soft oatmeal-raisin cookies, the kind my mother used to make. A few pieces of the cookies fall on the floor around her face. In a sudden move we exchange places and she lies on top of me and we continue to put pieces of cookies in each other's mouths.

Huh! Not much idea about this one. In the first scene the general feeling is affirmation; she is certainly affirming me but I am also approving of her skill as a businesswoman. In the second scene the act of feeding each other cookies also feels affirming; the cookies taste good and we are not forcing each other to eat them. The symbol of the African-American businesswoman - maybe Darchelle, or maybe God in the novel The Shack. The cookies...?

Revisiting this one months later, it seems pretty clear to me that this is about my relationship with Darchelle. I associate her with Africa, with the color red and even with oatmeal-raisin cookies. The dream depicts us as intimate but our intimacy, though sweet, is not primarily sexual. It depicts her as affirming me almost to excess but dismissing my more limited affirmation of her. It depicts us as sharing through our mouths, as in talking together, and in our exchanging positions, as equals in our relationship.