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| My childhood home |
Where do we go when we dream? To places inside our heads? To places of the heart? Are our brains trying to make sense of our daytime lives or just processing the excess information? Are we working out unsolved problems, perhaps putting them in a new light? Do dreams come true?
I dream in color. Always. Sometimes I'm a participant, sometimes an observer and other times I watch myself, all the time conscious of the fact that I'm also doing what I'm watching. Most often my dreams take place in familiar locales. I have repetitive dreams; one reoccurring dream finds me in a familiar house, going from room to room explaining to the people following me what each former inhabitant used the rooms for. I have falling dreams and dreams of being chased. I've had numerous dreams about being in a car that has no brakes.
I've had prophetic dreams, dreams of destruction, of the end of the world, of trying to save my children. Such dreams came before my then husband and I moved to Vermont with our four children. The real estate agent drove us to a town that I recognized from those dreams. It should have been a warning. My husband and I divorced in that town. My children had to choose a parent to live with. The world we'd all known ended there.
Ah, but last night's dream was of a different sort. A lifelong friend who died of cancer years ago came to see me. He was whole and happy and he had a life he was pleased with. He showed me his new house and it was the house I'd grown up in, the loss of which I still mourn. And I was delighted to realize that if he now lived in it, I could go there too. I could still see him, talk with him. And I'd be home. I woke smiling and the happiness has remained with me all day.
16 comments:
You are a vivid dreamer, Pauline. I rarely remember my dreams but I know I have them; they just evaporate when I wake.
What a wonderful dream you just had last night. I really like that.
I really enjoyed reading your blog today about dreams. I think probably most of us have experienced something just like this at least I know that I have and it all sounded so familiar. I too remember a re-occurring dream only it was always about dialing a phone over and over again in a panic and never being able to complete the call. Sometimes they are frightful and stay with you in your mind for days and sometimes they are wonderful like your dream about the house you grew up in with fond memories, Those are the ones that really can make you feel good all day long and the ones I really like to remember.
i imagine that brought quite the happiness..what a gift to see such a friend again....
I often wonder about dreams. I remember my dreams often.. and ponder on their meanings
Dream, the few that I remember, can be so very haunting. Are they prophetic?...Perhaps it is our subconscous helping us see the light.
Pauline:
I dream in color too. In some, I'm flying effortlessly. Recently I dreamed twelve lines of a sonnet, awoke before I could finish the last two lines, forgot it all, then wrote a different poem.
And last night I solved a problem that bugged me for years; I dreamed I reversed the telephone and printer on top of the two-shelf bookcse next to my computer desk; now I don't have to jump up when the phone rings.
Drerams help explain our reality, answering some questions, and posing others.
Ernest Dowson wrote:
"They are not long,the days of wine and roses/Out of a misty dream our path emerges for awhile,/Then closes within a dream."
Very nice visit, I still do projects with my father occasionally. He has been gone for 20 years. I wake really happy.
Kerry - I remember most of my dreams for at least a little while SOme have stayed with me since childhood!
MMB - yes, the happy dreams are the ones I like best to keep but the scary ones seem to want to linger.
Brian - it was wonderful to see him and to see him so happy! It was such a real life dream, too, in every detail.
Dawna - I never think I really get the meanings right.
Tabor - I've read many theories. I don't know which one to subscribe to...
Marc - I wish my dreams solved problems!
OOTP - isn't it wonderful when the dream world seems so real?
I loved your last paragraph. To me your dream means hope.
Greetings from London.
Hi Pauline,
I just found your blog from a link at My Maine Blog and am enjoying your posts. I guess we are "neighbors" too as I live in Maine and still have family in Mass. (Andover/Haverhill area; my first teaching job was in Worcester) I had to comment on this post about dreams...fascinating. I lost my sister to cancer three years ago. We were best friends and lived next door to one another. I keep telling DH how disappointed I am that I can't seem to dream about her...I so want to. Comforting that you could dream of your good friend living in your old house. Thanks for posting...Happy Thanksgiving! Cheryl
Cheryl - I, too, have relatives in Andover! Small world! Perhaps there will come a day when you dream of your sister. I hope so!
I love the way our dreams sometimes resolve things for us. I rarely remember my dreams most of the time but every now and then I go through periods of more vivid, memorable dreams. I wish that was more of the norm for me. I'm glad you enjoyed yours last night.
What a sweet dream!
If I had one super power, it would be creativity, and I think my dreams are a reflection of that. They're always brewing new and amazing stories, ones that would make phenomenal movies or books.
I love that you saw your friend. A few times in my life I've had vivid dreams like that...specifically my grandmother and my brother both 'visited' me soon after their deaths (I can still feel my grandmother's hug) and a fews days after a vivid dream about an old boyfriend, I learned he had been in a coma at the time of my dream and died soon afterward. Just this week I dreamed my dad was nearby, reading a book. They are always comforting.
But how do you cope when your most precious dreams shatter?
ACIL - hope is the thing with feathers… thanks for your always thoughtful comments :)
Hilary - just recently I dreamed I was being chased by an enormous wasp - some dreams are just no fun (and inexplicable!)
Crystal - if you're going to have a super power, the ability to dream is a good one!
Barbara - that's what this dream was - very comforting :)
Molly - you cry, you wail, you dry your eyes, you look for beauty and you go on...
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