Last Night I Dreamed of Hope

And I wanted to capture those dream fragments before they vanished to specks.

Once upon a time I had no animals in my house because of my asthma. But I married a man with a dog and a cat, and my asthma appeared to tolerate them as long as I vacuumed every day and changed my shirt and washed my hands after handling them.

We kept Scooter for the rest of his life. The cat, Roxy, didn't tolerate my children and lived out the rest of her days in a heated barn in Minooka.

Then Daniel fed a stray tabby kitten one day, and that's how we acquired Frances.

Then Christopher persuaded us to take one kitten from the litter of abandoned strays he rescued, and that's how we acquired Midnight.

Our veterinarian would not spay Midnight until she was tapeworm-free. And she was full of tapeworms, along with ear mites. I told the kids not to get attached, that we were providing hospice care. This was 2007, and we still have Midnight.

Anyway, during this transition time in our life, Midnight ran outside and vanished as we were leaving for the route. This was shortly before one in the morning and it was probably about eighteen degrees below zero.

We ran around the yard yelling, "Midnight! Midnight!" But Midnight did not reappear. Heartsick, we left for the route.

We circled back to the yard about four in the morning after we delivered Marycrest and before we started delivering to Channahon and Minooka. This time, Midnight emerged from underneath the deck...along with three other cats. We picked her up to bring her into the house, and she was not cold at all.

I'm sure you know where this story is going.

Ron would not hear of giving away the kittens and named them Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Charity used up all nine lives in his first five years. He is another story altogether.

Faith is still with us and living up to her name.

Hope escaped my son's house while we were losing ours. She ran into the neighborhoods and adopted another family. How we became reunited with Hope is also its own story.

At the time, we could not bring Hope home because we had lost our home, and we had too many cats for our lease. So Hope stayed with her new family temporarily, which turned into permanently.

It was really the best life for Hope, who needed the freedom to live as an indoor/outdoor cat (we had special fencing for our cats when we had our home in Channahon).

Hope and her family don't live in Illinois anymore, so it's not possible to see her. I still miss her terribly, but I'm happy she's had a great life and brought so much joy to another family.

She's older now and has a hip issue. She was also attacked a year or so ago and doesn't go outside anymore. But perhaps Hope is now happy being a couch cat and dreaming of her former glory days.

I never dreamed of Hope until last night. I'm not sure why I did last night. Jim sent me some updates and photos, but that was a couple of weeks ago. So Hope wasn't on my mind in that way.

But it was a wonderful dream.

I dreamed Jim had come into town with Hope to surprise us. Of course, our home was not the same home, but your mind believes that it is.

I spent lots of time cuddling with Hope, who totally remembered me, and showing Jim old photos and videos of Hope that we don't have because cell phone technology from 2008 to 2014 is not the same as it is today.

Hope also spent plenty of time with Midnight, her mother, and Faith, her sister. 

The only thing different about Hope was her attitude. She had completely dropped her "tortie" attitude. In real life, even though she is older, she still has it. As Jim's wife recently said to me, "Hope is still Hope." If you ever met Hope, you would understand.

Finally Jim had to leave. I walked with him to his vehicle, and we waited for Hope to come outside. Soon she came running out the door with Faith, two sisters, running together to the car.

And then I woke up, missing Hope.

But I'm still super, super, super happy and thankful Hope picked such a wonderful life - and family - for herself. We now know two wonderful people because of Hope. 

Here is the really fun part of the story.

Hope wandered into a home where the man living there was grieving the recent death of his own cat. Not knowing Hope's name, he called her Lola, which is kind of close to Hope's real name.

Three months later, Hope developed fleas and took her to his veterinarian. That's when the vet discovered her microchip and called us.

Jim was devastated. But he was (sort of ) ready to relinquish her when we came to pick her up. Except we couldn't take her with us. And he was more than thrilled to keep her until we could.

We actually were not in the position to do so until late 2019. '

And then we had a pandemic.

And then we didn't feel right about taking her back.

And then the family moved.

I think of the joy Hope brought to Jim's life.

If Faith is living up to her name, I think Hope is, too.

Have a great Tuesday!

Dreaming Up a Good Story

These were my two thoughts at 3:40 this morning.

No. one: Wow, getting rid of a headache is rather nightmarish (It's been a long couple of months of off and on again migraines).

No. two: This would make a great story.

Here's the dream:

I dreamed that someone I knew wanted to murder someone in Elwood and then commit suicide. Because I knew this person would kill me and my two youngest kids (who were pretty little in the dream), I pretended to go along with it.

So this person began to confide in me. The medium was poison. And she showed me the syringe she was going to use.

Now the setting was bizarre. It looked like a department store on the main floor (We were standing in the medicine department), but my kids were hanging out in the basement. In fact, they were waiting for me to come downstairs and watch TV and color with them.

A few aisles away, several police officers were giving another acquaintance some free food. I had a package of frozen ravioli someone had given me, so I added it to the distribution, quickly tipped off the police officers, and fled to the basement, locking and bolting the door.

I heard lots of angry yelling from upstairs for a long time and then quiet.

Before long, I heard the door rattle and one of the policemen saying everything was fine now and to come out.

By now, I was semi-conscious but still wrapped in the dream.

It's also when I realized my mistake.

By hiding away, I could no longer see the activity on the other side of the door.

Now, everything seemed too convenient.

Was it a friend or foe on the other side?

And did he now have the syringe?

At this point I woke up, fully alert, had the first two thoughts, and decided it would be stupid to get up so early.

So I set the alarm for 4:30 and went back to sleep.

I'm always amazed by the way our minds reassemble bits of information. Here's what it did:

The last emails I sent at bedtime were to several police officers for a story in progress.

My oldest son, who is diabetic, but non-insulin dependent,  is having health issues and used to live in Elwood.

I had read a post from a person receiving food before bedtime.

Also before bedtime, I had printed and packaged up some coloring sheets for my grandchildren.

Rebekah and I made a list of things we need from Walmart on Saturday.

And she wanted to make the frozen ravioli with the pork chops, but I told her to save it for later and use the potatoes instead.

And, of course, I like a good story twist.

The End.

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: Only a Dream by Sarah Stegall

Monday, October 11, 2010

Only a Dream?

According to http://www.wikipedia.com/, a dream is a succession of emotions, images, or sounds that the mind experiences during sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of interest and speculation throughout recorded history.

Just about everybody dreams. Most of us can recall dreams from different periods of our lives. Some of us even remember a dream from last night. Dreaming happens different for everyone, though science recognizes it usually occurs during the sleep stage of Rapid Eye Movement, or REM.

I believe, for myself, that when I dream it's my subconsciousness working out things my awake self didn't or couldn't deal with. You might disagree. I've learned that dream interpretation has an enormous berth. Recently, I noticed my daily stress has been rolling into my sleep.

I had a very disturbing dream just last night. The progression of the dream made no sense, yet my dream self knew exactly what I should be doing at all points of the dream. Only it wasn't a dream. It was more like a waking nightmare. I'm not really keen with sharing the details so I'll just give you the dynamics. Someone was dying, I couldn't stop it, and right before the dream should end, the face of the dying person was replaced with someone I'd give my life for. Even worse, the details of this dream really stood out.

All day today I've had this dream in the back of my mind. When I broke it down it was almost humorous! The beads of sweat I so clearly remember, turned out to be some drool. The password for the computer in my dream turned out to be the last thing I was thinking of last night. I also believe I gave my blanket a very awesome back rub. I realize my stresses were just amplified.

Other aspects I've come across are: I normally don't remember dreams and the ones that stand out are the ones that happen right before I awake. Sure I've had a few where I wake up in a sweat in the middle of the night, but those are ones where I don't remember much and I eventually nod back off over a book.

This post is quite relevant to Bryony, because Melissa relives a life that isn't hers during the nights. She is faced with lucid dreams or wild hallucinations. Melissa is unsure whose version of events she's dreaming of or if they are even dreams because they seem so real. Denise's manuscript is full of clues that lead the readers into making their own assumptions as to what happens. If you dream tonight, ask yourself in the morning, "Is it only a dream?"

So I Had This Dream Last Night...

...that I was sitting in a meeting of WriteOn Joliet.

One of the people present hadn't attended in a long while. This morning, I used that opportunity to reach out to her. But here's the main focus of the dream

Another member, who has been working on a young adult fantasy trilogy for a number of years, just purchased her ISBNs (the true part).

At the meeting, she pulled out a chapter to read, along with the series' very last chapter, which she had given me to read and was crumpled. To me, this indicated she had read and re-read my comments on it, taking them somewhat to heart as she revised.

Before she could explain why she was reading the very last chapter, I interrupted and told her she should not read it, that members will probably want to read her trilogy, and that sharing the last chapter may spoil the experience for them.

At this point, my co-leader remonstrated me, both for interrupting and for thinking for everyone else.

I got a little sulky about it, and the author, looking disappointed, put the last chapter away. My alarm soon went off, and I woke up still mentally arguing the point. I came to the conclusion that I should be more mindful about letting others speak before offering my opinion and let adults decide for themselves.

On the other hand (LOL), I still think I was (overall) correct in my judgment. Still, I'll never know for certain because I never listened to the author's rationale for sharing it - or in hearing the reasons why the other members might like to hear it at that meeting.

Dreams are fascinating, and I use that concept in my trilogy, especially the first one. Certain dreams stand out more than others, some for decades, and I'm more likely to recall dreams if I write them down.

How about you? Do you ever receive insight through dreams?