Only in my Dreams . . .

I have been having some crazy dreams this week. I find myself waking up in the morning in a groggy state, trying to remember if we have a dog, if I am still living in our home, if I have a front lawn, if I saw some old friends. It takes me a few minutes to get my bearings.

I don’t know why.

Aren’t dreams strange? What makes us dream what we dream? Why does it seem I can go months without a single dream, then in one week, I can have one after another that sticks in my mind like glue?

Is it stress that brings them on? Or eating something high in sugar late at night? I’ve heard that both of those things can bring on dreams. But I haven’t been eating a lot of sugar – and especially none this past week. Maybe it’s stress.

You know that I’ve been having one of those weeks. Yes, that might be it.

I often think that your dreams are your minds way of bringing some subconscious issues to the forefront, or some way that the universe helps you work through one issue or another. Hmmmm . . .

One of my dreams this week had to do with a dog. Now, for the record, I was not raised in a house with pets. My mom is allergic to cats and dogs, so the closest thing we had to having a pet was a fish tank (connecting with a fish can be challenging, you know?) So, no dogs in our house. Katie has an allergy to most dog saliva, so we don’t have a dog now. And while PG was raised with dogs most of his life, he’s really understanding (of course) and hasn’t ever pushed us to have a dog.

But in my dream, we have a dog. And I realize that PG is has been out of town for a few days, and I have forgotten to feed the dog. The dog is absolutely fine in my dream, but this overwhelming feeling of worry and guilt over not taking care of this dog is killing me. I call PG on the phone, in my dream, and cry and cry and tell him that I forgot to put the dog food out for days. PG assures me that everything is fine, but I feel like I’ve just about ruined our dog. I can’t believe that I didn’t put the dog food out. In my memory, I feel like the dream was a lot longer than what the whole story takes up here, but you know – that’s just how dreams work. But I woke up with the worse headache after this one. Hmmmm . . . what does it all mean?

I had another dream this week where I am standing in my living room, watching out my front window as some HUGE construction equipment comes by and digs up our lawn. I feel as if they are digging up the lawn to put sewers in on our block (which, in reality, we have). I stand there and watch this huge machine (that surprisingly looked more like some sort of scrapbook tool) dig up a hole that is the size of a round swimming pool. There is a backhoe on the parkway that is digging at the same time, and they are working so diligently pulling up the earth and dropping the dirt into a dumpster. And I am just watching this whole process from our window. I am the only one there. Me and the construction men on the machines. And I am watching them . . . for what seems like hours. What in the world does that mean?

The last dream I had this week was so real to me, and it brought people from my childhood front and center in my mind. People I haven't seen or really thought of in years. In my dream, I am walking outside with my friend Kathleen, who I went to grade school with and who I am still very close friends with. We are walking with a whole group of people we went to school with, and we are all the age we are now (late 30’s, early 40’s.) I can see that we are in busy city, and that it is winter (we are all wearing coats and scarves.) And I seem to be really concerned over one of the guys went to school with, who happens to have crossed the street from where we are and is walking with another group of our friends away from us. I keep looking for him and am asking another friend of ours where he is going? Where is he? I see to be really upset, and I wake up wondering . . . what does that mean? Do I need to find this old friend? Why would he now, 25 years since we were in school together, pop into my mind?

I think I need to do a little research about dreams . . .

What do you think? Have you had any strange dreams lately? Do you feel your dreams are telling you something? Let me a comment . . . I'd love to know.