What dreams are made of.

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face…. No, not for THAT reason, you of ribald minds, I should be so lucky.
I woke up smiling because of a dream…. get your mind out of the gutter… you know who you are.

Dreams….they still aren’t totally understood by scientist, but the general consensus at this point in history is that dreams are where we work out things subconsciously that we cannot figure out, work out, or act out in our waking lives. Sometimes they just amount to fantasies that we would never act out in real life, other times they deal with dilemmas that we are unable to resolve, and still other times are a bizarre combination of the sights, sounds, thoughts, & experiences of our lives weaving a narrative of their own. Religious groups often ascribe some spiritual quality to dreams as being divinely or demonically inspired omens, warnings, encouragement, or instructions.

I rarely remember my dreams, so when I do, I ponder it. I wonder what meaning it has? What problem am I trying to solve in it? What thoughts or experiences do I need to be process? What spicy food did I eat that served as the catalyst? For the past eight years my dreams have mostly been dark, violent affairs with me personifying the pain my body & mind are in. I do battle & wage war in pitched bloody conflict, my profane curses being uttered aloud as I sleep and the real-life pain causing such thrashing about that the sheets & covers are torn off. So much so, that my wife’s side of the bed is the picture of tranquility, and my side looks as if someone is preparing to wash the bedclothes.

This morning’s dream was a comedy. It featured two of my favorite people. We used to see each other daily, then more or less weekly, and then rarely. In the last 4 years I have only seen them a few times. Our lives just took different paths. Recently, circumstances were such that they & all their children were able to visit us here on our little island. It was a good visit, it was fun and easy. There was baggage hanging onto our relationship that needed to be jettisoned. As far as I am concerned it was. And so imagine my surprise when they showed up in my dream.

True to the nature of the husband, it was a slapstick comedy, over the top, & corny. They had something they wanted me to know, but couldn’t tell me for some unknown reason. Me, being the epitome of the curious cat that I am, just HAD to know what it was! And so the juvenile punch line developed. “Would you like to tell me, or would you like-like to tell me?” like tweens say when they develop their first crushes. I asked the question in every combination I could think of and in all kinds of ridiculous settings and of course they responded in kind. It got sillier & sillier as the dream went on until finally I woke up with the couple insisting they would “REAALLLLY LIKE-LIKE” to tell me the heretofore unmentioned issue.

Laying there in bed, I smiled, giggling at the dream, wondering what it meant.
What was I trying to work out in relation to them?
What was my unconscious trying to tell me?
Then it came to me, it wasn’t all that profound, nor was it new information.
It was simply that I miss them being a regular part of my life.

And that I REALLY LIKE-LIKE them.