Dream Remembered

I got up at 6:30 and started brewing the coffee.  Then I sat down to write my SOL.  Strangely enough, my dream came to mind.  I don't often remember my dreams now.  I used to write them down and I remembered them pretty well.  I haven't remembered one in a while.  It is funny though that when you do start to write them, more comes to you.  It did for me as I wrote this.  I first jotted down parts that were clear, then the sequence and more details became clearer.  A dream not written down evaporates.  I wonder if it goes into a vault that we just can't access easily again, or if it just dissipates and can't be reassembled.  Anyway I captured this one as best I could. 

I dreamed last night that:

We were at my mother-in-law's house, but it wasn't hers, it was more like my childhood home.  My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, husband, and an infant were staying there.  It was early morning and we were going to have breakfast, but my brother-in-law wanted to go out for breakfast. We left my mother in law at home with the infant.  I was worried, since she is too weak to be lifting the baby but they assured me that the baby wouldn't cry before we got back.  There would be nothing I could eat at this place for breakfast, but I went anyway. We started driving, but then stopped at a field and started walking across it. Other people were also getting out of cars and walking across the field.

I went on ahead to get a spot in line at the restaurant.

When I got there, there was a snaking line forming. I went all the way from the front of the restaurant to the back where there was a round glassed in room.  The line was moving and
at the end of the line in the glassed in round room were three little girls dressed in ivory satin gowns - there was a sign on one of the dresses telling who she was, but I can't remember now.

The girls went by me as the line moved, and I got a place at the end of the line in the round room.  When the others in my party it was now my husband, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, two of my husband's business associates, and I believe, my grandson.  Suddenly, I noticed there was a table and chairs in this glassed in round room, and we decided to sit there.  Then someone told me an old friend (who has passed away) was going by outside.  There was a glass door right next to this room that we could have used to come in instead of the front door!  I looked out, saw her right on the sidewalk by the door. I invited her in.  She had lost weight.   She was pushing a baby carriage or was next to one, but left it out there to come in and join us.  I began counting chairs to make sure we had enough.  When I went to talk to her she had gone already.  She hadn't stayed for the meal.  Someone said that there was some discussion about something - maybe somehow something was being done or colored or something, and she left.

This group turned into being at a party or something where there were people everywhere.  Some of them seemed to have displays of things.  Then it seemed that it was just artwork.  I had told someone who was painting that I was interested in painting, too.  I think that person told someone else who began flagging me down from across the room that had turned into a field with a clothes line or wire strung to hold paintings.  It appeared that there was a wall also for part of it.

I went over anyway and this person asked me how many paintings I'd done.  I told him one real painting.  Then he asked me what I'd painted.  I told him it was a picture of a caterpillar.  I realized soon that I'd said the wrong thing, that it was my dog I'd painted.  I didn't correct myself, though, because I already felt stupid when I said I was a painter but had only done one piece!

He laughed when I said one and proceeded to show me empty frames, and a couple of very large paintings that I couldn't make out.  They were dark, almost black, and there was no image that I could see.  I mentioned that I liked the ocean and would like to paint that, but that people were tired of seeing ocean pictures.  He agreed.

Pretty soon I was in a large room where children were getting ready to go home on a bus.  I needed my bag and coat across the room. I asked for my bag.  It was a heavy wool and red.  They found it in a wooden box and passed it to me.  Then I asked for my coat.  I think I asked for the blue wool coat, but there was no coat like that.  I suddenly remembered that I'd worn my purple coat, and they passed that to me.

I think I woke up then and checked the time.  6:30 am.
Time to get up and make coffee.

And that is what I did.

Though it reads as absurd, this dream is full of little significant things in my life, some sad, some happy, some reminders, now that I think about it.  Maybe I'll just write that part for myself some other time.  The dream is way more interesting than the real.

Maybe I should paint a picture of a caterpillar today.
I've never painted a caterpillar before.

I'M BACK!  I forgot a poem!

Dreams a swirl around my head
as I tumble into bed
Waiting to get in and make
all a jumble when I wake.
Silliest of dreams are true
"Things you don't remember" stew
Other things are tossed together
Rain and sun and snowy weather
Whispers, shouts all like a buzz
Nothing like it ever was!
So my dreams just sift and swirl
Since I was a little girl
Some are fun and some are scary
When you go to bed you're wary
But when I wake they fall away
Melted by the light of day.

by Donna JT Smith