Once again I am having early morning dreams, vivid dreams that I remember.
I have been dreaming about people dying. Young people. People in my family who are alive and well, dying as babies and children.
Those aren't hard to call. There were so many deaths of young people in my family before the oldest generation started to disappear that I think , with the loss of my 100-year-old grandmother, my mind is trying to balance things out in a perverse way that insists on recalling that one of the first to go was my not-yet-year-old brother. As a young mother, I lived with the constant sense of terror that someone could happen to one of my children. I am sure that my grandmother's death has reawakened some of those feelings, which cost me some effort to overcome so that I could parent my children in an atmosphere of optimism and anticipation.
And now, this morning: another house dream! I wrote about these last year, these frequent dreams of finding extra, unfurnished rooms in my house. People rushed in to suggest that they had to do with new and unfulfilled opportunities in my life, which made perfect sense and stopped the dreams. (Thank you, all of you. That was back in the days of numerous comments. I'm afraid that blogger, with its insistence on the process of signing in, has dealt a major blow to online communication.)
Anyway, a new variation on the house dream: this morning, the guys who are supposed to be working on the overhang and soffit (three weeks of promises so far, and they just called to cancel due to the cold) were here, in the basement of all places, and they discovered a whole series of rooms I didn't know about: three bathrooms and five bedrooms, packed with the leftover furniture and boxes and even stuffed animals of the prior owners, who moved out 23 years ago this month. And when I poked my head out of an unknown doorway, I discovered a crumbing and weedy brick terrace next to the house, and the backs and sides of neighboring garages that I did not recognize, rendering me completely disoriented as to my location.
I have some thoughts about this dream, which was astonishingly detailed and colorful . But I know what my thoughts are. I'd love to hear yours.
I have been dreaming about people dying. Young people. People in my family who are alive and well, dying as babies and children.
Those aren't hard to call. There were so many deaths of young people in my family before the oldest generation started to disappear that I think , with the loss of my 100-year-old grandmother, my mind is trying to balance things out in a perverse way that insists on recalling that one of the first to go was my not-yet-year-old brother. As a young mother, I lived with the constant sense of terror that someone could happen to one of my children. I am sure that my grandmother's death has reawakened some of those feelings, which cost me some effort to overcome so that I could parent my children in an atmosphere of optimism and anticipation.
And now, this morning: another house dream! I wrote about these last year, these frequent dreams of finding extra, unfurnished rooms in my house. People rushed in to suggest that they had to do with new and unfulfilled opportunities in my life, which made perfect sense and stopped the dreams. (Thank you, all of you. That was back in the days of numerous comments. I'm afraid that blogger, with its insistence on the process of signing in, has dealt a major blow to online communication.)
Anyway, a new variation on the house dream: this morning, the guys who are supposed to be working on the overhang and soffit (three weeks of promises so far, and they just called to cancel due to the cold) were here, in the basement of all places, and they discovered a whole series of rooms I didn't know about: three bathrooms and five bedrooms, packed with the leftover furniture and boxes and even stuffed animals of the prior owners, who moved out 23 years ago this month. And when I poked my head out of an unknown doorway, I discovered a crumbing and weedy brick terrace next to the house, and the backs and sides of neighboring garages that I did not recognize, rendering me completely disoriented as to my location.
I have some thoughts about this dream, which was astonishingly detailed and colorful . But I know what my thoughts are. I'd love to hear yours.
7 comments:
Hmmm...I'm going to take a stab at it but I think it may be the logical extension of last year's dreams sbout new opportunities. This one has to do with the opportunities that exist for you right now, under your own nose, that you've never even realized were there. Or perhaps it has to do with new lives for those you love who are leaving you due to death or the logical progression of life and independence (your grandmother and your sons).
I look forward to hearing others' thoughts.
OK, house dreams are about the self. Basements and attics, being storage places, usually represent the past. My take is that the belongings of the former owners are all memories of the people you have loved and lost, the people and events that have claimed and shaped you into who you are. In going through the old memories, you are finding new insights as to who and where you are.
Maybe your dream has to do with a sense of impermanence. There were people living in your house before you, who filled the home with things and hopes and plans (possibly symbolized by the areas outside you didn't recognize). Just a thought.
Blessings to you.
I got nothin' But it's all very interesting!
wow, I have no idea but recurring dreams fascinate me. I suspect it does have something to do with opportunities or missing something. I constantly dream I am floating the corridors of my grade school. Just gliding above the floor, not touching it. it's the same school my boys went so I know it pretty well. We need a good dream interpretor. Oh, and your suspecting comments are reduced do to the log in process is correct in my case.
I'm intrigued by the terrace...I think that must have some special significance, but despite having a master's degree in clinical psychology, I haven't a clue what it means. My program was big on Freud, so you'd think we would have spent time on dream interpretation, but nooooooo...
Robin, you wrote: "rendering me completely disoriented as to my location." I think this might be significant. The dream seems to be about midlife, looking back at childhood (stuffed toys)and forward to your own death (crumbling terrace). It reminds me of Dante being in mid life and entering the dark wood. Except the terrace is part of your own house (body) which is aging (crumbling). It is interesting how the dream has objectified childhood/ageing (the toys belonging to others and the garages of others that you don't recognize). Garages and basements are both repositories of lifetime accumulation (memories). It seems to me that your dream is trying to ease you into a midlife acceptance of mortality. Maybe?
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