Bed of Dreams, Kathy Ostman-Magnussen
I don't, really.
I think they're a bunch of random images from our subconcious blended together in our imagination to form who knows what. I often remember dreams, at least for a little while. I suppose that makes me a light sleeper, since you have to wake up during the dream to remember it? Normally my dreams make little sense, but are pleasant and interesting. I have dreams that take place in recurring situations. If I dream about my home, it's always the home I lived in from 2nd- 7th grade, but with some weird twist - usually the bathroom is not the bathroom but some other room. If I dream about school, it's never the school I work at now, but a composite of the different places I've attended and worked over the years. Most of the time I wake up and think, "that was nice," or sometimes, try to go back to sleep and pick up where I left off. You know, to get back that warm, fuzzy feeling of happiness.
I don't have bad dreams very often, although when I do, I usually try to "re-invent" the ending of the dream - you know, close my eyes, half sleep, and will the dream to change. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The worst dream of my life was a few years ago, and it was so vivid and so awful that I don't even care to tell you about it.
The last week or so, though, I've been having some weird dreams, and not ones I love. The first one involved me ticking off some guys who then starting beating the crap out of my dog. I woke up seriously upset by that one and had to cuddle Ginny for a while to settle down. The next night I dreamt of snakes - and I hate hate hate, double hate, loathe entirely snakes. And in this dream, Ginny and a little tiger I had for some reason were tearing about the snakes. This morning I woke up after having a weird dream where good friends of ours (not people I actually know in real life, but friends in dreamland) went through a big trauma I don't feel like typing, either.
My mom says maybe I need to pray.
It reminds me of a summer morning several years ago when I was working at an English camp in Spain. There were five of us 20-something girls all working there who had become quite close. One morning I woke up after having a dream I can't remember anymore, but with a distinct heavy feeling that I couldn't shake. I got up early and sat on the couch reading the Bible and praying and, as I did so, a clear sense of peace began to wash over me. Later that morning when I got to camp, the girls and I were talking. Four of us had all experienced the same thing - a foreboding feeling that was almost tangible - and we had all immediately dropped to our figurative knees to spend time with the One. And we all were calmed.
Now, I don't know what that was about, but I do remember it was powerful.
And so, while I don't really believe in the significance of dreams meaning anything, I do suspect perhaps I should get back on my knees again.
Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll wake up wanting to go back to sleep to continue the warm, fuzzy feeling, instead of anything else.
My mom always said if you wake in the middle of the night you should pray. It doesn't matter for whom or what, just pray. So many times I learned later that the someone that came to mind needed my prayers at that time. I take the same approach with dreams. Hope you get some restful sleep soon!
ReplyDeleteDreams can have a life of their own, can't they? I always wondered what God intended when He invented them.- Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing your heart. It is a true thrill to my soul every time I discover another Kindred Spirit! Hope your day was a good one, and that it was full of LIFE!
ReplyDeletesweet dreams tonight, friend.
ReplyDeleteThere was a season in my life -- in a very stressful season that I began having a series of unsettling dreams. I did ask others to pray for me that they would stop. (And thankfully they did.) My oldest child has dealt for years with nightmares and prayer has been the only thing that calmed him back down or even helped him to get to sleep.
ReplyDeleteDreams are odd, aren't they? I agree with you -- dreams seem to be usually images from what has happened in my life, all twisted up, with some other stuff thrown in there. But then, there are times that they seem significant like that night four of you experience foreboding dreams. Then I wonder, "Does God still work through dreams like we read about in the Bible?" Just this week I was reading in Acts and Paul saw a vision in the night with a man asking them to go to Macedonia. They took it as God's leading and went.
For you, I hope you will soon return to happy, peaceful dreams.