Dreamin'

There are two main recurring dreams I've had throughout my life. There was this one I used to have as a child and into my twenties about a duck. It wasn't a real duck but an animated one. Kind of like the duck in the "Suzy's Zoo" brand cards, if you've ever seen those. It was like the stuffed duck in this picture, but nothing else in the dream was animated, only this little duck fellow. He was bright yellow and about 4 inches tall. Friendly as all get out. I don't think he had a name but he would follow me around, kind of like an itty bitty dog. Those dreams always left me feeling quite happy. My niece had one kind of similar but she had this tiny string man. He was very bright - all different colors of string twisted into a little stick man, hanging out, a little dream friend. The other dream is one I've had in my adult life. I'm sitting on a very clean white bed with my niece (the one from the string man dream) and I see a spider crawling on the bed. I grab a Kleenex and pick up the spider. It crawls out of the Kleenex and bites me on the finger. Ouch! (Actually that "ouch was inserted for blog interest only, in the dream there is no pain at all) I put the Kleenex down and squeeze my finger to get the poison out and at first it's kind of icky and brown but as I squeeze, it becomes clear and harmless. Then I look over and say to my niece, "I had to get that shit out of there." I always like that dream too because I feel so good when I wake up. And I spend the few days after that dream thinking about what all I need to work on and deal with. I haven't had either dream in a while but I do think about them.

Dreams are amazing. After my father died I wanted so badly to dream about him. I wanted him to show up in his old Knightsbridge trousers and one of those shirts he used to like that had short sleeves and a type of elastic trim at the bottom, where you don't tuck them in but they still look quite respectable. I wanted him to tell me it was all okay and that he was just hanging out, fine and dandy. I didn't dream about him for a year! I did have a dream about him several months ago where I walked into this lunchroom of a school, a big type gymnasium with those long speckled fold-up tables and he was sitting at a table with his head in his hands. He looked up and saw me and smiled and yet wasn't actually waiting for me. He was waiting on my mom. That was kind of a cool dream. He didn't even talk to me in the dream but he made it very clear that, although he was glad to see me, it wasn't me he was waiting at the lunch table for. Of course, it's just like my dad to not bring the lunch but plan on my mom to do it. I like to think she's going to show up in that lunch room someday with a liver and onion sandwich and some Lay's sour cream and onion chips, which I'm sure is the other thing he's waiting for.