Dream

The other night I had one of those scary disaster dreams that really get your attention.  Eric and I were upstairs in the house and we were aware that there was some storm activity coming our way.  They were warning people (but of course, as dreams go, the details have faded now and I can't remember how we learned about it).

At some point when I looked out the window and saw the trees going crazy, I knew that the worst case scenario was upon us.  We didn't have time to seek shelter in the basement and trees started falling over all over the place and then a couple of them hit the house square on.

The noise was terrible, but the house stood the onslaught and kept us safe, even upstairs.  I was afraid that we would be buried in debris or killed by tree trunks but it didn't happen and I was happy.  We were heading outside just in case, and the damage to the house wasn't even a consideration.

So where do dreams like this come from?  It would seem to me that there has been so much bad news lately that my brain just couldn't quite deal with all of it and in my subconscious mind it had to be relieved.  So the ISIS thing, the Ebola outbreak, the Enterovirus 64, along with really awful local stories just built and built until the brain needed to deal with it at night.

We've talked before about dreams in the Bible, how important they were in the life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Dreams can be an important indicator in our lives.  In my case, maybe I've watched a little too much news and it's time for a rest.  At other times, it might be an indicator that you've taken on a little too much and you feel vulnerable and outside your comfort zone.  Perhaps you need to ask for some help to deal with your responsibilities.

At still other times, it might mean that in your subconscious you picked up a few clues about a person in your life that you haven't dealt with in the conscious.  Like maybe it could be a woman having a dream about a new boyfriend and could actually serve as a warning to her to proceed with great caution.

When I was a little kid, I caught the chicken pox but had a very mild case of it.  In fact, there was only one lesion and it was on my stomach.  But the thing is, as the virus begins to take hold in your body, you run a fever.  So the night before the lesion showed up and apparently I was already in the initial stages of chicken pox, I had a terrible dream.  I can still remember it to this day.  I was being chased by someone named "Jack" and he had saber tooth tiger teeth in the front.  Really huge teeth and apparently he must have wanted to use them on me.  So I was running and running to get away from him.  Weird, huh?  My mother told me that it was from the fever and that may be so, but did it have to be so real? 

So that's another way that we can learn from dreams.  When a little child has a bad dream, it does bear some investigation.  Is there something that is frightening the child that you may not know about?  Is the child getting sick? 

And one other thing -- there is a tribe somewhere that I read about.  I've told the story many times but can't remember where this primitive tribe is located.  They are not in contact with "the world" whatsoever and use the same methods of dealing with life as they have for ages.  Their day starts with breakfast which they eat together and they share their dreams from the night before.  And then they discuss their dreams at great length and try to understand them in the context of their lives.  By doing this, there is virtually no mental illness in this tribe.  There are no suicides.  And they also encourage the tribe members to interact within the dreams to ameliorate the threats.  For example, as I used to tell my children, if someone is chasing you, call Superman if you don't think you can handle it.  Or just spread your arms and fly away from the threat. 

People who have studied the tribe think that by taking charge in the dream, it carries over into daily life by making problems more manageable, by making the individual feel more empowered to deal with what comes.  The only suggestion I would make is to call upon God when we are having a bad dream.  See if we can enter into our own dream and get rid of the threat with God's help.

Here's another thing -- do you dream in color?  I am pretty sure that I do all the time.  They say women dream in color more than men.  Interesting.  When you dream in color, it has to have more of an impact!!

Have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon.

Karen