January's Secret Subject Swap - the Dream

Welcome to January’s Secret Subject Swap. Again 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  
Sit back, grab a cup and check them all out:

Careful, though!

Baking In A Tornado 

Follow me home
The Momisodes
Confessions Of A Part-Time Working Mom
A Working Mom's "Whoas"
Evil Joy speaks   
Go Momma!
Juicebox Confessions
Stacy Sews and Schools
Searching for Sanity
Spatulas on Parade  
Smalltalk Mama  

                              

                    

                                    

My subject is 

What was your most recent dream?
(Either a literal night time dream or a more abstract wish)

It was submitted by Juicebox Confessions - thank you!

I'll have to cheat a tiny little bit about the "recent". I suffer from insomnia, and I usually don't happen to sleep deep and long enough to dream. And if I do, I can't remember. However I do have a dream that has stuck with me for - let me count - 14 years. Here goes:

I walk in a forest. It is a gorgeous spring day. Blue skies, birds are chirping, the water in the creek is gurgling gently, squirrels are running around, everything is really nice and peaceful, you get the picture. 

I am alone, but along the way I keep meeting other hikers, and we exchange a couple of words. Some mention that it is not recommended to cross the bridge to the other side to the river.

Of course the next thing I do is crossing the bridge. On the other side everything is totally different. Cold temperatures, no more greens - only fallen and petrified trees. And rocks. Everything is grey. Wasteland, sort of.

The cheerful creek is now a torrential river, and the whole atmosphere is really distressing. But I am too stubborn to turn around and go back to the other side. I don't know where I am going, but I am going. 

As if my heart wasn't pounding enough before - all of a sudden a grey wolf stands directly in front of me. I almost faint. I never had a dog, and I can relate to cats better. What am I gonna do about the wolf? Surely he can smell that I am afraid. Is he going to attack and maul me?

The wolf approaches me. I can't move. Then he nudges me and walks away. I stand still, transfixed. He comes back and nudges me again. Makes some growling sounds. How scary!! After a while I get the feeling he is not going to hurt me, so I hesitatingly follow him. 

There is no more path. Just rocks. And the water race. I realize I am so lost, and I have no other chance than to follow the wolf and hope for the best. When I stand still for a minute he gets back and circles me. Then we proceed.

After a while the environment gets friendlier. We are back on a trail, there are some trees, the river has calmed down, and it's getting warmer again. From the distance I can see a log cabin. Some people are there. 

Upon getting closer I realize they are not just any people - they're old friends from school whom I haven't seen in years, but who are still familiar. The wolf has taken me home! I turn around and want to thank him. But he is gone.

This was my unforgettable dream. I remember waking up being very confused. It all seemed so real, and I was trying to figure out the message: 

• Don't cross the bridge when they tell you not to - obviously! 
• Don't go on a hike alone and without a map?
• Wherever you go - you'll end up back home?
• But what about the scary, yet friendly wolf?

After a couple of days I was still bothered by the dream. I had the perfect life, everything was going fine, why was I feeling so confused? 

I went online and tried to "translate" the components of my dream. River, wolf, forest. Aha, I was in a transitional phase in my life. Really? Why? I felt even more cumbered and arranged a meeting - a seance - with a dream interpreter. I have never in my life before and after reached out to someone like this, but I felt I had to do it this time.

My first impression of the guy's place met the cliche I had in mind. Dream catchers, candles, crystals all the way. But he was nice, listened attentively, asked questions, and it didn't take long and I started to cry. 

We talked about my boyfriend who didn't want to move in with me, and why this was bothering me in my otherwise perfect life. My "guru" talked about shamanism and told me that the wolf represented my intuition. And the dream had showed me that I could trust and follow my intuition, even though it could be scary at times.

I didn't understand half of it, but on my way home I felt calm and relieved. 

Shortly after that I turned 30. I did something different to my hair. A couple of months later we moved into the most gorgeous apartment. A year later he moved out again. Talk about shattered dreams.

When one door shuts, another opens. I was free to go and do whatever I wanted. And I had a dream. Telling you about it would go beyond today's scope though - I might write about it another time. When I reach 300 likes on my new new Facebook page maybe ;-)