Abstract

Tenderness

Carefulness in the presence of something easily hurt — love expressed as the lightness of one's touch.

Tenderness in a dream is the dream's image of love expressed as the lightness of the hand. Tenderness is not the same as kindness; tenderness is the specific carefulness that happens when the thing in front of you is currently easily hurt and is loved. The dream brings tenderness when something in your life — a partner in an exposed moment, a child, a piece of your own newly honest self — is being held by someone whose touch has lightened in recognition of what is now possible to damage. Tenderness given easily is the dream affirming that the love and the carefulness are present together. Tenderness withheld in a moment that asked for it is the dream noting that the love may still be real and that the form it needed to take has not been supplied, and the easily hurt thing has been touched in a way appropriate to something stronger.

Related symbols

A dream within a dream

Awareness doubling on itself — the dream pointing at its own structure.

Ambition

A held intention to reach a higher level — a forward orientation that directs the use of one's energy.

Anger

A hot energetic response to a boundary violated — a signal that something not okay has happened.

Anticipation

The forward lean toward a coming event — present time coloured by what is expected next.

Autumn

Harvest and letting go — the phase that is fruitful and falling at once.

Awe

The response to something larger than the self — humility produced by accurate perception of scale.

Disclaimer: For entertainment and self-reflection only. Not a substitute for professional advice.