Ian Wallace Interpretation:
Opportunity to devote precious time to developing my unique talents rather than neglecting my natural creative capacity
Dream: You are horrified to discover a baby that you gave birth to years ago, but had forgotten all about until now. The baby is usually found in a drawer or a cupboard when you are looking for something else. Even though you have apparently neglected the baby for years, it is still alive and you immediately begin to take care of it and nurture it. You can’t believe you abandoned your baby all that time ago and feel incredibly guilty and remorseful. The baby usually responds to your revitalizing love and care, and is soon healthy and thriving.
Meaning: When you dream about a forgotten baby, you are remembering a labour of love you created a while ago but had to abandon for some reason. The baby symbolizes a very precious part of you and represents a unique ambition or talent you possess. You have been ignoring this talent and now it is crying out to get your attention in waking life. Although you can’t believe that you had completely forgotten about your baby, you realize you had to abandon this great gift of yours due to the circumstances you were in at the time. You wrapped your unique talent up and put it to one side, or stored it in a safe place in the hope that you could return to it sometime soon. As your life continued, however, other priorities and responsibilities came along and your baby was left forgotten and neglected. When you laid it aside, for whatever reasons, you did it in the hope that you would one day return to it. Although the baby may now seem emaciated or ugly, it is still alive and kicking, and has the potential to grow into something healthy and wonderful. You feel guilty that you have neglected this precious part of yourself but it is never too late to explore your forgotten potential by rediscovering this love from the past. This baby is a seed of your fertile imagination that you brought into life and now you can encourage it to grow and thrive.
Action: This dream is calling out to tell you that you possess some fantastic skill or talent but that you may have been neglecting it over the years. It may be easy to justify ignoring your deeper needs due to all the other demands you have had on your time but now you have the opportunity to devote some precious time to developing your unique talents. Even though it might take some time for you to build up your expertise again, you have a natural creative capacity that you need to nurture and develop into something utterly personal.
Background: The bond between parent and child is one of the strongest and most intuitive relationships. Babies are born helpless and the parent is responsible for taking care of them until the child is able to look after itself. This bond means a parent will sacrifice almost anything to ensure the baby’s wellbeing. We also describe ideas that are very close to our hearts, as being ‘our babies’ and can feel we are abandoning our deeper needs if we neglect these plans. Our creativity can often move us deeply in the same way that we are profoundly moved by the new lives that we create.