Only in Dreams

The Birds

A few weeks ago I had a disturbing dream about birds.  I was holding two little white birds and lighting a candle near them.  The flames slightly touched the first one, and then it slowly started to melt away into nothing.  The other one was somehow my dog Oliver reincarnated as a bird.  He was fine at first because the flames didn't touch him, but then he started to melt away too until he turned into nothing!  This may not sound overly distressing (other than my dog being a bird and melting), but I woke up short of breath and with a horrible feeling about the dream.

This is what the dream dictionary has to say:

 

To dream of dead or dying birds foretells a period of coming disappointments. You will find yourself worrying over problems that are constantly on your mind.

 

Great.  That's just what I need.  Haven't I had enough disappointment?   And what type of disappointment is it supposed to be?  Who wants to live their life dreading some looming unknown disappointment?  

After reading the interpretation, I immediately decided that I didn’t like it and was not going to accept it.  The lawyer in me wanted to argue around it.  The birds weren't actually dead or dying - they melted away, which is obviously something completely different.  Maybe even something magical or supernatural.  I balked at this supposed interpretation and vowed to take things into my own hands and skip the disappointment.

But then the disappointment stated to come, in many different respects – in both big ways and small ways.  Maybe over time it won’t be lasting disappointment, either in that it wasn’t really anything significant in the grand scheme of things, or maybe what seemed disappointing at the time won’t actually turn out to be a bad thing.  Time will tell, I suppose.  But for now my dreams are freaking me out.  And I really hate birds.

I Am Just A Dreamer, And You Are Just A Dream (Maybe)

I used to pride myself on my “psychic dreams.”  It seemed like I was always dreaming about things that ended up coming to fruition in one way or another.  There was the time I dreamed that a good friend got a letter telling her she got into a school she wanted to attend only days before she got the news she was accepted.  I dreamed that a co-worker would be leaving several weeks before he announced his departure.  There's also the surreal feeling of arrving someplace (in real life) for the first time thinking that it all seems so familiar, only to realize that I have seen the place before – in a dream. 

 

But I haven’t had as many of these type of dreams in the past several years.  Or sometimes I'll have a dream that I have a very strong feeling about and just know that what I dreamed about will one day come to pass, but it never does.  So is there really such a thing as psychic dreams?  Maybe what I’ve thought to be this type of dream before was really just my brain subconsciously putting together things I’ve observed in my waking life.  Or maybe the dreams that leave me with a strong feeling about what will happen is nothing more than wishful thinking – hopes and desires manifesting themselves in a dream where things turn out exactly the way I think they should. 

 

My dream consultant (also known as my office neighbor) is not a believer in psychic dreams.  I’m starting now to lean in that direction.  But still I feel that dreams are powerful, and I can’t completely preclude the notion that we have the ability to predict what is to come through a dream.  Think of all the examples of forewarnings and predictions in dreams in the Bible – Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream about the seven years of severe famine that was to follow seven years of abundance, and the dream warning Mary and Joseph to escape to Egypt to avoid Herod’s killing the infants, to name a few.  I've even had a few dreams lately that I'd say pretty squarely fall into the psychic dream category - so maybe my psychic abilities are back.  Perhaps it all is a question of deciphering between dreams that truly are intuitive versus ones that simply represent something you’re longing for.  But then how do you figure that out?

New Year, New Blog

So I’ve always had a pretty active imagination and tons of ideas, thoughts, and stories running around in my head.  Because of this, I’ve always had aspirations of being a writer.  But when it comes to actually putting pen to paper, I’ve got nothing – things seem much better in my mind.  I’ve also always had really crazy, funny, and often downright intuitive dreams.  Lifelong recurring tornado themed dreams, premonition dreams, adventure dreams, dreams you don’t want to wake up from, dreams you are so relieved to wake up from, and so many more.  I’ve always enjoyed sharing dreams with friends and hearing about their dreams.  A childhood friend had chronic dreams about my imaginary older brother named Allen (I always wished I had an older sibling), and my roommate now is always having hilarious dreams filled with hot dog eating contests, weddings, theme parks, and karaoke contests.  Then there was the guy who after only one date told me he had a dream with pictures of me spanning throughout the stages of his life – creepy.  And I still vividly remember a friend from junior high telling me in front of our lockers one morning about having a dream that I died! 

 

Simply put, dreams have always been a big part of my life.  So what better way to take a stab at writing than keeping a dream themed blog?  Maybe this won’t be entirely dream focused (I’m thinking blogs are a good avenue for venting), but at least it will give me something to talk about.

 

P.S. – a special thanks to my blogging influences – A’Dell, Sara, and the Anonymous Lawyer. :)  I can only hope to achieve a similar level of wit, heart, realism, and ingenuity.  Special thanks also to Kristi for helping with the aesthetics of my blog.