A Very Strange Dream

I have very vivid dreams, and most mornings I can remember what I dreamed about. I had one last night that was a doozy. I am still contemplating it to see if it had some kind of deep meaning.

In my dream, I was in a house with several other family members, including Phil, my sister, and my two sons, who were children in my dream. It was not the house that I live in now, or have ever lived in, but in the dream it was home, and I was familiar with the rooms in the house. As we were sitting in the living room together, a strange man appeared – I don’t know where he came from. We all knew him in the dream, but I don’t know in my waking state who he was. He told us that we needed to get all of our things together, that we would have to leave in a little while. I asked him what was happening and where we were going, but he didn’t answer my question. He repeated again that we needed to gather up things that we would need when we left, and we didn’t have much time.

I don’t know about the others in the room, but I took his instruction to heart, and began packing a duffle bag. I found a warm hooded sweatshirt, a pair of jeans, a pair of hiking boots and warm socks, two pairs of underwear, and a couple of long sleeved t-shirts, and put them into my bag. I then went to my bedside table and pulled out from the drawer my dog-eared New English Study Bible that had been my textbook in an Old Testament class in college years ago, still my Bible of choice. I then went to my desk and grabbed a journal book (the kind with only blank pages) and a ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil. All of these went into my duffle. From there I began searching for a sewing kit. While searching for this, I found a butterfly pin, and placed it with my other treasures. I looked and looked for needle and thread, but couldn’t find any. After going through all of my drawers fruitlessly, I remembered that I had a small sewing kit stashed in my closet underneath the lowest hanging clothes rack. I found it, and made sure that there were needles, thread, and a pair of scissors in it. Into the bag it went. Moving to the bathroom, I opened the cabinet under the sink to see if there was anything that I needed. I found a box of band-aids and a tube of antibiotic ointment, which also made it into the duffle.

I couldn’t think of anything else that I needed, so I went back to the living room to join the others. I told them how much trouble I had finding the sewing kit, when my younger son, Brian, asked me why I thought I needed it. I answered, “What would I do if a bra strap broke?”

Then I woke up.

Recurring Dream

I had it again last night. I've had this dream on a regular basis ever since I was a little girl. I was flying. I've heard that this is a common dream and one that has psychological meaning. I don't know what it could be, but my sister told me recently that she has a similar dream, so I'm thinking that it must be pretty common.

When I was a child, this dream centered around fairies, Peter Pan, and other make-believe fantasies. The dream always originated in my bedroom, where I would discover that I could float above my bed. I would then use a swimming motion to travel out the window into the outdoors and enjoy a euphoric adventure of flying above the houses and trees of my neighborhood.

As an adult, Peter Pan and fairies are no longer a part of my dream, but in many ways I am still a little girl whenever I dream this dream. It is now more of an awareness of levitating. In my dream, I realize that my feet aren't touching the floor and I slowly begin to drift skyward. It isn't an out-of-body experience - I feel that I am actually floating and I use my childhood swimming strokes to maneuver through the air, change directions and do flips and rolls. The dream is wonderful and freeing, and I always awaken with a let-down feeling of being earthbound once again.

I wish I could fly, but I know that this dream will return on another night. It always does. While gravity holds me to earth, my spirit is able to soar in my dream allowing me to escape the weight and limitations of reality.

Oh! To Fly!