You know how it is after you awake from a bad dream - one so disturbing and yet so vivid that it takes a moment to regain your balance and realize it isn't real.I awoke this morning from a dream that was all-encompassing and epic in proportion. In it, I drop through trap-doors into claustrophobic passageways I have to navigate in the dark to emerge in the open air. I re-live the loss of a dear loved one. My house is in disarray, a jumble of overturned furniture and boxes. As I watch torrents of water began to flood in - I still have an image of streams rolling down wooden basement steps, the soft wood spongey as it soaked. In seeking for the source of the flood I look to the hills where Spanish tile mansions burst into flame - ah, yes, the water was from firefighters. And we have to leave now! The wild animals are fleeing down the canyon - I can see them galloping. My companions are not listening to me and I can't find my laptop.
And yes, as in all my bad dreams, I am improperly shod - I have one flipflop on and can't find the other, can't find sturdier shoes. I awake in a sweat.
I've been told by those familiar with the language of dreams that a fear of being caught without shoes indicates a fear of being unprepared.
It's always about shoes. I can't imagine why.What themes recur in your dreams?
Top photo is a detail from Simon Rodia's masterpiece sculpture Watts Towers - not really a nightmare at all, but a wonderful dreamscape.
Great post; the recurrent themes of our dreams is an interesting subject. No shoes or only one shoe....that would get to me too. I agree; it's something about being unprepared. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI go back to college in my dreams, although last night I dreamt a lot of trees were falling.
ReplyDeleteAND we happen to live just down the road from the lab of ornithology, in answer to your question!
I'm often in a hospital, usually working, though occasionally as a patient. As I've been both a nurse and a patient, this isn't surprising!
ReplyDeleteBut things turn round, and I can't find the way out, or where I am supposed to be. And when I do get out I walk and walk and walk (with shoes!) trying to find the way out of the grounds.
So many of my dreams are very vivid, just like you described. It takes a good while before I am safely in bed!!
Having only one flip-flop is a true nightmare.
ReplyDeleteForgetting my pants. Or I'm wearing a skirt and forgot my underwear. And it's windy. Or I show up to an important meeting in my pajama pants.
ReplyDeleteAlways the pants, apparently.
"She obviously doesn't wear the pants in that family?"
Oh and I wanted to say, your dreams are like an interactive computer adventure game! Wow! I'm tired just reading it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't remembered a dream in a while. I wonder what that means?
ReplyDeleteI love your shoes : ) The wedges with the peep toes are adorable!
I haven't remember a dream in years. I once asked a Jungian Dream Analysis professor at Colgate University about what I could do about remember dreams - drinking that valerian tea or something. Her response? "Dreams are our subconscious way of working out problems. Why do you want to have more problems than you need?" (all voiced in a fabulous German accent)
ReplyDeleteI decided I could live without remembering them.
Holy crap! All of that and then the shoes too!
ReplyDeleteLast night I awoke after about thirty minutes of sleep. I had carefully been eating with pressed fingers one Nerd after another. Do you know Nerds, tiny hard sour candies? My bowl was empty. ARHHHH! I woke up. True story. Now pass the candy!
If I lived in So. Cal, I would probably have dreams like that, too -- not because of the shoes, but because of the fire and water. Those are some real fears at certain times of the year.
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