Earlier in the week I came across a video on YouTube that I like a lot. It is the one of Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent, where she walks out and announces that she wants to sing and everybody is writing her off before she even starts. Then she opens her mouth and out comes this beautiful voice singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.
Not because of that, but I have been thinking a lot about dreams and dreaming today. Regular, going to sleep dreaming.
I've been dreaming a lot lately. I like to dream, even when they seem to make no sense, I like to think about them and try to figure out if they mean something?
My subconscious? God? The leftover slice of pizza that was in the fridge?
In the Bible, Joseph had dreams and God gave him the insight to know what those dreams meant. He dreamed some doozies too. He dreamed his brothers would all bow down to him and he felt the need to tell them about it, so of course they all got jealous of him and wanted rid of him. He got thrown in a pit and sold into slavery. He went through a lot and finally got thrown into prison, where he correctly interpreted some more dreams and became a head steward in Egypt. Pharaoh's right hand man. Then he dreamed of 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine, and saved the whole known world from starving. He was re-united with his family and forgave them all for selling him out. But God was in control of the whole situation and knew the start of it and the end of it and it all turned out like God wanted it to. Well.
So, do I think God sends me dreams? I don't know. He can do that. I believe He does do that sometimes. I don't know if I am sensitive enough or close enough to Him to "get it" all the time, but then again, if God sent me a dream, wouldn't He make sure I "got it"? I don't know. Lots of people through the years haven't.
My mom, grandma and great grandma believed that dreams could be messages from God. My grandma had a dream or a vision of her mother's coffin going slowly by in front of her. In a few days she got word that her mother had indeed died.
I have had some dreams along those lines but none of them ever came true. I think everybody must have bad dreams where something bad happens. Was my grandma's dream just a bad dream, a coincidence, or a vision of what was to come? I don't know.
I've read a lot about dreams and dream interpretation and most of what I read says that a person is processing what has happened to them or is trying to work out things. I've also read that a person dreams every night but just doesn't remember them unless they wake up while dreaming. I guess that makes some sense, but I don't believe everything I read about dreams. Some of the interpretations are a little out there. Gosh, they are waaaaaay out there. So I'll take what I read with a grain of salt. I pretty much enjoy what I dream and wish I could remember more of them, but of course, like dreams do, they fade quickly once you wake up.
When I was young, say from 5-6 years old until I was maybe a teenager, I had a recurring dream. I didn't dream it every night, maybe 8-10 times that whole time, I know I dreamed it enough to know it was a recurring dream. The dream started with me at the top of a semi-dark, wide flight of stairs in a building that went down about 20 steps or so and then just ended, 5 or 6 feet above the bottom floor. In the wall at the bottom was a door. Of course, I always magically ended up in front of the door. I was scared to open the door but was also impelled to open that door. I always did open the door, to find a room piled, and I mean piled high with toys.
I would start into the room when I would look up and there on the ceiling of the room was a gigantic black fuzzy spider. When I say gigantic, I mean maybe 5 feet across. That was one honkin' spider. Of course I would be paralyzed with fear and couldn't move. Then that spider would start wiggling a little and of course then I would turn to run back up the stairs, but oh wait, remember that 5 foot drop from the bottom stair?!?! That is when my dream usually ended, with me in terror that I couldn't get away from that spider. That is as close as I ever came to having a nightmare and I don't know why but I never considered it a nightmare until just now as I was writing it down.
Another recurring dream I have had through the years is one involving elevators. I'm not scared of elevators at all. At least I never thought I was. Is my subconscious telling me that I am indeed scared of elevators? I don't have the very same dream like the stairs and spider dream, but always with a malfunctioning elevator. Either I start to get on and the floor of the elevator is a foot lower or higher than the floor I'm standing on, and it might start moving right about the time I am stepping into the elevator or I get on and the elevator won't stop, just keeps going up or down. It never crashes, just goes without stopping.
Another dream involving elevators is just hard to understand in any way. I walk up to where the elevator is, and instead of the big roomy elevator that is usually there, it is a foot high opening with a sort of hay elevator type thingy going by. Maybe a little bit like what I think a dumb waiter would look like. I have to sit on a bar that is attached to a cable, reminding me of an old rope swing with a branch or piece of wood tied at the bottom of it to sit on. After I get on it, it takes me through the hole in the wall and that is where my dream usually ends. Another variation is I stand on the bar, or have to jump on the thing as it is moving, kind of like an escalator, only with just a cable and bar.
Another dream I have had a few times is one where I am standing on top of an old cellar out in the yard, or maybe the porch on our old house, and I start to step off onto the ground when I notice that there are copperheads laying side by side, all over the ground. There is nowhere I can step without stepping on a snake and I am panicked, standing there looking at all the snakes. That is all that ever occurs in that dream, I always wake up at that point.
A dream I have every now and then involves being at Powersite Dam in Forsyth. In my dream I am walking across the top of the dam and the water is low so no water is going over the top of the dam. In some dreams the water is so low that the bottom part of the dam is showing. I have seen the water that low a couple of times and it looked scary to me for some reason, so maybe that is why I dream of that. Another one involving the dam is one where I start to go through the middle, the inside of the dam, but when I start to go through I realize the opening is not large and tall like it really is, but only a crawlspace. I have to get down on my hands and knees and crawl through the dam, and sometimes it gets very close and I might have to crawl on my stomach. That is a nightmare for sure!
I have also had dreams about drowning or gasping for breath and I wake up and I am actually gasping. I think I may have sleep apnea and really do stop breathing for a second or two...maybe? I haven't had a dream like that for a long time, well...ever since I made myself sleep on my side or stomach instead of sleeping on my back. Coincidence? hmmmm
One fun dream I had that I will always remember is one about a vehicle we once owned. It was a very large Dodge Ram Charger. A big old SUV that had a very smooth ride and would absolutely get up and go. Fast. One of us made a remark one day that if that Charger had wings, it could fly. It became a frequent saying of ours. Usually every time we got in it and went anywhere, one of us would make that remark. So of course, one night I dreamed I was driving the Charger and looked down at the dashboard and there was a large red button. I didn't know what the button was for, so of course I pushed it. Wings came out on the Charger and lo and behold I was flying. It was effortless, not a nightmare at all. I just drove the Charger the same way I would if it were on the ground and we were cruising through the clouds. It was a very pleasant dream.
So are dreams just sorting out our thoughts or visions? Who knows? I enjoy them though.
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