Dreamland

When midnight mists are creeping,
And all the land is sleeping,
Around me tread the mighty dead,
And slowly pass away.

Lo, warriors, saints, and sages,
From out the vanished ages,
With solemn pace and reverend face
Appear and pass away.

The blaze of noonday splendour,
The twilight soft and tender,
May charm the eye: yet they shall die,
Shall die and pass away.

But here, in Dreamland's centre,
No spoiler's hand may enter,
These visions fair, this radiance rare,
Shall never pass away.

I see the shadows falling,
The forms of old recalling;
Around me tread the mighty dead,
And slowly pass away.

--Lewis Carroll--

 There are some mornings when the alarm goes off, that I am just not ready to climb out of bed.  It's not that I am so tired; the truth is, I've been awakened in the midst of a dream I am not ready to leave.  Sometimes I am able to turn over and pick up where a I left off; other times all I have left are the clues written in the dream notebook I keep near my bed.  

To me, dreams have always been particularly fascinating because they take us into a world of experiences, where, seemingly separated from our waking lives, we lead a second existence. In dreams, we create our own world,during which we encounter experiences that appear as real as when we are awake. In dreams, feelings that have been lingering on the edge of our awareness are given the opportunity to manifest themselves in a series of thematic escapades.  Other dreams are trying to tell us something; they serve as warnings, so to speak.  They can change our lives if we pay attention to what they are trying to say.

Such was the dream I had many years ago.  I'd been going through a rather difficult time in my life and had surrounded myself with a group of people who, in retrospect, were nothing but trouble for me.  In my dream, I lived by the ocean. I was standing on the back porch, and for some reason, I had all of my important papers with me.  Suddenly, gale force winds began to blow and the papers blew away from me, the wind carrying them towards the water.  I raced after them and just before I reached them, I began to sink into sand that had turned into mud.  People appeared and stood around me as I sunk deeper and deeper.  I cried out for help, but they ignored my pleas.  It was then that I woke up.

The meaning of this dream was very clear.  Since I had begun hanging out with that crowd, I was becoming something that I was not.  I was literally losing my identity.  They were dragging me down, and, the fact was,  when my life began to sink, and, it was going to sink, I should not expect any of them to reach out to help me.  

Not all dreams are so easy to interpret.  Some may be harder to decipher, and some messages may even in a series of different dreams.  This is when the dream notebook becomes important.  Recurring dreams have an important message.  Be aware.


Next:  Dreaming about your ancestors