Who We Are: Jean Hynes-A Tribute

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WHO WE ARE

A TRIBUTE

To JEAN HYNES

The Road Made by Dreaming

from the Cyberdreamwork Community

Are not the best beloved of years
Around your heart forever?

There has been an outpouring of love and grief in the Cyberdreamwork community of which Jean has been a pivotal part, much loved and admired. We all know that we have come to the end of an era with Jean in the core group.

Here are some of our voices.

One of us, Diane, brought the picture of a reflection pool in relation to the lines of the Emily Bronte’s poem:

‘Sympathy’ seen above.

This pool would have spoken to Jean’s profoundly reflective nature, which was capable of holding others safely contained in her remarkable ability to concentrate on the body of images.

Joanie added: But from the moment I “met” her in Robbie’s embodied workshop I SO loved and admired her like a big sister – the kind of woman you know you can trust – she was that kind of woman – solid, integral, deep listener, truly deeply feeling and compassionate...She was also very intelligent, curious, booksmith, reader, crafter, interesting – a great person to talk with. I knew it from the moment I saw her really. And she and I talked outside the group and all that I thought about her in my fantasy, I found to be true when I spoke with her.

I can’t come up with something to say formally for Jean. I just looked forward to her voice in dreamwork because I trusted that voice, her voice – she was very trustworthy. I KNOW her voice has a good audience now wherever she is. She was/is a special person no doubt. She had a gentle persona. I loved her. Admired her greatly. I will miss Jean.

Betty, who had a great deal of first hand experience of Jean’s magic, says: I met only once in the physical world (at a Cambridge intensive a number of years ago), but I was privileged to be a part of the cyberdream group that she led. Her sensitivity, clarity, and exceptional skill in guiding others in the world of dream will be my most cherished memory of her. I admired and respected the way Jean embraced her own life and shared parts of that life with our group. She will be missed but never forgotten.

Anne from Australia included this for Jean:

I had been in Jean's Friday night (Saturday morning for me) dream group since late 1999, I think. I was a very regular attendee. Then we did our dreamwork training with Jill and Robbie together. I really love the person whom I know only through her voice and her dream work and occasional private emails. We both have an interest in yoga, and she is interested in the work of Ken Wilber, whom I have heard of but know little about. I remember that she once presented a dream in which Ken Wilber is conducting a workshop. But the first dream of Jean's that I ever heard happened once when only she, Jill and and I were present at her group and so we offered to work a dream of Jean's and she presented one in which Merle appeared. I remember that he provided her with a sense of safety in this dream. I was curious about Merle as I had never heard the name Merle for a man before. It is French for blackbird. I felt happy when I learned that Jean and Merle planned to get married. I always hoped to meet Jean - we often promised each other we would meet one day - but our overseas visits to dream intensives never coincided.

Jean, I shall always keep you voice in my heart.

Anne adds: I must have been telling her that I was trying to make a decision about something. She wrote back to me: "Ask your death." So Sphynx-like, yet so clear in its intent! I am sure this is how Jean lived, with integrity, and with peace of mind as she approached her own death.

Patricia, a South African trainee and group leader writes:

Is it more than 8 years ago that I first 'met' Jean. Robbie had asked three of us to become cyberdreamworkers and together with Jill we worked consistently under their wonderful guidance to eventually become one of the very first cyberdreamworkers. I still have the one photograph I have of Jean - one in which she beams that so natural, open smile, looking at the world with such genuineness, such sensitivity and such warmth. In the regular cyber sessions Jean and I worked on numerous dreams, taking regular turns who would be the dreamer and who the dreamworker - all under Robbie's and Jill's excellent tutorship. We shared so much of our life - working on each other's dreams increased our understanding of each other, the struggles we both endured, some different and others very similar and so the strong connection between us grew.

That genuineness, sensitivity and warmth together with wonderful support, encouragement, understanding and empathy I have continued to experience from Jean - even after our training had officially finished. We joined again when Robbie and Jill extended the training so that we could then become official 'embodied psychotherapists'. We both ran our individual dreamgroups but every so now and then we would reach out again and instantly feel the established connection.

Farewell, my special friend, may your journey to the other side be a jubilant one - my body is going to miss you but my soul is feeling very connected.

Monica in Australia writes: I remember working ( in Ireland)as a group on one of Jean's dreams. There was a sandal that had been trodden into the mud, which on closer examination appeared to have something (I think pink) sweetly feminine about it. It seemed to me that there's something sweetly feminine about Jean, without prissiness or pretentious. She told me one morning that I had "neat" tops. I replied that I liked her "neat" socks; (What a seemingly insignificant thing to remember, but there was such a nice feeling to that brief exchange).

Merle and Jean, I am holding you both in the Light. My heart goes out to you both from the other side of this world at this important time. Peace be with you both.

Diane, also from Australia states: My heart is heavy as I say farewell to Jean. But I remember her aliveness in our sessions, her deep compassion and her humour. I was very taken by a dream she worked in Ireland where she was warmly welcomed by the Longwood family. Jean's passing is an enormous loss for our dream family. She is very alive in my memory and has a special place in my heart.

Merle you are often in my thoughts and prayers.

Lynn remembers Jean’s joyfulness, in a dream intensive, as she was preparing to marry Merle, and the dream about boxes. Then, of course there was her wonderful leadership in the Cyberdreamwork groups. I always felt held by Jean. As I sat in my studio/hermitage today I felt blessed not only to have been a friend of Jean's, but to have had her sleep in that little space. She came there after we came back from Iceland and before going back to New York. I thought of a saying by a Native American artist….. That people leave their breath wherever they go. So wherever we walk, that particular spot on the earth never forgets us, and when we go back to these places we can actually partake of their breath and of their spirit. I was there today to be in touch with the breath of beautiful Jean with the magnificent hair.

Diane remembers: I just met Jean and Merle on the trip to Iceland. They were a beautiful couple and I was very impressed with the delightful connection that they had with each other. The few encounters I had with them were very memorable, and I remember hoping that I would one day be on another trip when they would be part of the group. I have a picture of them walking up to one of the waterwaterfalls. They are some distance away in the vocanic landscape of Iceland but you can see Merle standing gracefully like a tall Norman Mailer looking skeptically at this person he hardly knows taking his picture, and Jean, friend of Aphrodite, with wonderful open smile and flowing hair.

Jean and her family have been very much in my mind and heart. This has been with a deep sense of the transitional state of being that each person was holding during this time. Her death leaves me with a great sadness and meaningful memories. My sympathy is extended to her family and all those who were touched by her life.

Una writes: Jean's gentle presence was very much with me this week as I walked through some of the streets where we were with her this last summer in Dublin and I have a strong sense of the music of gymnopedies moving through Jean as we worked on her dream.

Dianne states....Last evening I think about Jean as I gaze at the full moon and witness the lunar eclipse, a stunning and awe-inspiring experience here where I live in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Today my attention is captured when I remember the moon and read Jean’s words beside her Cyberdreamwork website picture. Jean is speaking about dreams and says, “They really got my attention when I realized that I seemed to dream vividly whenever there was a full moon. I wanted to understand that connection more…”

From our website.....Jean co-directs the Wellness Center for the Sage Colleges in Troy and Albany, New York, and has a private practice in Albany. She became interested in her dreams in graduate school, while studying for a Ph.D in counseling psychology, in the early 80's. “They really got my attention when I realized that I seemed to dream vividly whenever there was a full moon. I wanted to understand that connection more..” Since 1991, when introduced to Embodied Dreamwork, Jean has continued to train both in and out of cyberspace. In 1999 she was in the first cyberdreamcoach training group @ www.cyberdreamwork.com, leads the first Multicultural dreamgroup that was established on our website and co-leads our Women’s group. Jean says, “I love my friends, their teen age children, my piano, my cat, making art with my hands, reading, and sleeping on the ground under the stars."

Dianne continues: My lived experience of Jean is more of a knowing… a knowing that comes via the potent, kinesthetic, embodied experience of working with our dreams in companionship with her adept facilitation… this knowing is profound… as is my appreciation for Jean and her life… as is my sorrow at this time.

Though I’ve not had the privilege of meeting Jean in person, my knowing of Jean comes through the expression of her spirit via words shared over the miracle of internet communications during dream-tending conferences. There in that space, I felt so held by her tending in the midst of our collective dreaming experience.

Ruby sends....heartfelt wishes to Merle and Jean's family that her passing be peaceful, soft, gentle.... my thoughts/heart is with you in this time.

Arlene writes: will miss Jean. Though I knew her only through our training and supervision group she was for me a gentle and peaceful person, one who was comforting to be with and also reassuring. The following is work that Jean did on one image in a dream. It is her description of an "incredible shirt" and reminds me very much of my experience of Jean.

It's an incredible shirt...one you don't throw away. There's life in the shirt...no sharpness, it's rounded from what it's rubbed up against....soft and peaceful because it's been thru a lot....the shirt feels where it's being touched, it knows places where it's worn that need carefulness and tenderness. it's glad to be touched again, energy goes there, it wants to feel the contact.. it's happy to be in contact and this is felt in the third eye...

I trust that Jean's shirt is with her. I am grateful for all that she gave me personally and the group. She will be missed.

Cynthia remembers: Jean and Merle are such a strong part of my memories from the Iceland trip. It was the first time I had met them. We talked together about the joys and challenges of Love that comes at later times in life. Their open sweetness with each other was so apparent. I especially remember how tender Jean was when Merle shared his dream with the group. Her love and support for him is clearly a strong aspect of her life. I value the time we shared together in Iceland. It is a joy to have special moments with such kindred Dreamers.

Jill, writes the following to Jean:

You have been so much a part of our thoughts all these months. We will miss you deeply as we celebrate your rich life. We will miss the wonderful work we shared on Cyberdreamwork and your consistent, loyal, dedicated partnership co-creating our online, international community of dreamers.

Several weeks ago, when reflecting on a dream you once worked, I sent you and Merle the following e-mail. I hope you won't mind my sharing this with others.

Merle was affectionately in the dream. I remembered that at that time you had just started Iyengar style yoga. You said that Iyengar was teaching you strength and when you do the mountain pose - which was basically standing still, it was also grounding and you could feel strength in all the parts of your body. I was about to write that I was now with that pose, sensing the strength along with the love I wanted to send back to you. Ironically, that morning a member of a group Robbie and I was working with had a dream that synchronistically tapped into these thoughts and I send it now just as I did then, as a gift meant for you.

The dream.......I'm sitting at a beautiful long-wood table. Robbie, the dreamer and an older, wiser woman, sit at one end. At the other end is a woman (unknown) who is an invited guest. The older woman being very wise takes the dreamer on a walk up a mountain. As she climbs, it is obvious she has done this many times before. She is fully in her body and walks with confidence, present to herself and the environment. The dreamer is in awe of this woman's strength.

I imagined you as the guest, as a witness to the work you have always loved and as a woman who can resonate with the mountain woman, the mountain of strength you embody for those of us at Cyberdreamwork who love and will miss you so much.

We send our love to you, Merle, your family, and the devoted friends that have been by your side. May you hear our words and rest in peace.

And how does Robbie, remember Jean?

I don’t remember specific dream images. They have all melded into Jean, her laugh and her wild hair. I remember her cat walking through the screen when we worked with video. I remember her precious love for Merle.

Most of all I remember her intense joy of life. She was a master at the art of living. I could hear her imbibe it, swallowing deep. I can see the shine in her eyes as she walks along the Glacier in Iceland and as she looks at the sunrise of the Summer solstice. I see her rejoice in her Irish heritage among the cairns of Ireland. When I think of Jean I see joy.

That will not leave this earth, as long as there is breath in anyone who knew her.

And by that time we shall all be ancestors.

May your ashes fructify the land.