Childhood Home- lifelong setting

The setting of my dreams is mostly at my home in KL where I lived for 10 years from the age of 5 to 15. I have thereafter also stayed in 3 separate homes in Singapore for about 10 years each, but my dreams rarely occurred at these later homes. Thus I feel early childhood experiences, especially at the age when our world was ruled by 'big people' have lasting impact in our subconscious mind. What is often important in dream interpretation is to identify the feeling, ie. how one feels during the dream or immediately upon waking up. Usually a recent event/situation may have evoked feelings which we associate with similar feelings encountered during our childhood at home.

Watching the children in the children's home where I volunteered makes me wonder how the experience of living in an institution away from home will impact them. When I observe the sand stories played out by the children at sandplay therapy sessions, some common themes surface. Amongst my collection of symbols, a castle and a stone cottage are often picked and featured in the sand stories, most likely reflecting a longing for a real home. Some of these children do not even have a permanent place outside which they can call home. One child instead of picking a cottage, built a wall using the sand and placed pieces of furniture to demarcate a home; but only to crumble the wall and bury the furniture, the futility of it all.

Although for some of us, our childhood home may not necessary be a symbol of love and security, it nevertheless was THE  place to go back to at the end of each day.

Will these children be deprived even of a permanent setting for their life long dreams; I wonder.