Blog 3190 – 07.26.2024

I Had A Dream

I awoke this morning from a very vivid dream in which I was lost in a city that I did not know, separated from loved ones, and trying desperately to get back to them. It was a great relief to wake up and realize that I had only been dreaming and yet there was a bit of sadness too, for in the dream the loved ones that I was separated from were two of the greatest loves of my life that have both been lost to me for many years.

Loss is a big part of life and learning to cope with loss is a life-long process for most of us. Nothing makes us feel quite as lost as the loss of a loved one. I remember as a young man hearing an older more experienced supervisor announce that one on the men on our work crew had lost his mother in death. I recall his words verbatim. He said, “He just lost the best friend he’ll ever had.” A mother’s love is a terrible loss as is the loss of a father or a beloved child. The list goes on grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and dear friends whom some say are the family we choose. Still an even more hurtful loss is that of those rare and intimate relationships where we feel we have merged not just our bodies, but our hearts, my minds, and spirits too.

In my dream I had briefly been reunited with my beloved daughter but also with one of those rare individuals in my life that I mentioned above. We three were going to some kind of reunion picnic gathering with a larger group and there was not room for all three of us in the car as the back seat was full of things for the picnic, so I volunteered to ride in another car and was taken to a strange church in a strange city from where I was trying to ascertain my location so I could call my lover and have her come pick me up. I had made it to a corner where I could clearly read both street signs and was about to make the call when my wife (Whom I must say has no reason to be jealous of ghosts from the past, but probably will be if she reads this) touched me and startled me awake from the dream.

I do not need a gifted dream interpreter, like Biblical Joseph, to interpret my dream. It was just a reminder that nothing, no one, and especially no love is ever truly lost, but are always a part of us and what dreams may come. That is one of my favorite movies, What Dreams May Come. I hope you will take the time to watch it, if you have not, or again if you have not seen it in a while. I plan to see it again today.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White