Dreams

   Dreams.  Ever have a dream that seemed so real that years later you still remember it?  I have several that are so vivid that I’ve never had them twice, never had to.  And what about those dreams where you need to do something, you try and try, but it just never seems to happen?  Do you have those too?

   I had one dream about George Clooney.  No, it wasn’t ex-rated.  I’m not sure if it was before or after his sexiest man alive awards or not.  I met him, he was nice and we spent a day together.  Sightseeing and hanging out.  The dream ended on a wet street, late in the evening, where we embraced and said good bye.  It was then that I realized he is a really great guy.  Very down to earth.  I remind my boyfriend of that dream every once in a while.  I don’t tell him the details, just that I met Mr. Clooney and that he really is a nice guy, and he just shakes his head and tells me I’m crazy.

   But what if we do meet people in our unconscious state?  Who’s to say George didn’t share that very same dream and woke up thinking, ‘Wow, some dream, that girl was really nice. I wonder if she is in real life’?  Of course it probably wouldn’t stick in his mind like it has stuck in mine, him being a celebrity and me being a nobody, but it could.

   After my dad died I had a dream that we were picnicking on a cliff, high above anywhere.  When I think of it I picture mountain scenes from The Sound of Music.  My dad was there, and my daughter and me and probably my sister and mother.  I started to fall off the cliff and my dad tried to grab my hand, but I slipped through.  I woke up of course, disproving the myth that if you fall off a cliff in your dreams then you die, but it bothered me for a long time that my dad couldn’t save me.  Of course, that wasn’t up to him, he tried.  I really needed to grab a branch on the way down and pull myself up.  I eventually did, but not in my dream.

   When I was a kid I dreamt of a fight.  It was the same dream over and over.  I never knew who I was fighting but every time I went to punch or kick someone a force field would hold me back and I couldn’t move.  I don’t know how many times I went through this.  I talked to my friends and asked them if they ever had dreams like that but none ever admitted to it.  One night I woke up as I kicked the wall.  I had broken the force field.  I had kicked my unknown assailant.  I never had that dream again.  Later on, when I was a little older but not much, there was a mean girl on the bus who would pick on me and my little brother mercilessly.  One afternoon she sat behind us and flicked her finger at the back of his ear.  I kept telling her to stop but she wouldn’t.  I turned around and stood up, she did too.  I’m pretty sure she asked me if I was going to hit her and I’m pretty sure I said I was.  Then I did.  Square in the face.  I don’t know if I punched her eye, nose or mouth.  I know there was a lot of hair pulling and kicking and swearing, and all I can liken it to is Ralphie’s fight in A Christmas Story.  I got off the bus and cried to my mom.  I thought the mean girl’s family was going to kill me.  In the end, nothing happened except that that mean girl NEVER bothered me or my brother again.  Ever.  I never hit someone again either.  But I think that dream prepared me for it in some way.

   When I was a teenager I attended a wrestling event at a friend’s school.  I seriously think there were people like Macho Man Randy Savage there.  It was a fundraiser and I just happened to be visiting there at the time so I got to go.  As we were sitting in the bleachers I looked around and told my friend that there was going to be a fire.  Around half time the fire alarm went off and the school was evacuated.  A popcorn machine had caught on fire.  Everything was under control and once it was taken care of everyone was let back in to continue the show.  My friend asked me how I knew.  I told her I had had a dream about it.

   I love my dreams, I look forward to them.  I’ve only woken up crying or scared very rarely.  Thank God those dreams only stay with me for a little.  I always think they won’t go away, but they do.  I think sometimes dreams try to tell us something, either about ourselves or about others.  They rationalize our fears or try to explain them and help us overcome them. It is our mind trying to make us pay attention when we’re most relaxed and receptive.

   What about your dreams?  What do you dream about?  Have your dreams helped you?  Have you seen things you never thought you would?  Tell me!  I’d love to hear about them!