Friday, August 5, 2011

482: Thank God for yesterday!

Sometimes dwelling on the past is a good thing.

Today was a good example of such.

Around 3 a.m., my eyes were hurting so I figured it was time to turn off the telly and put the yarn and hook away. I also knew I had to be up by 10 a.m. latest, to get Baby Bliss to work on time.

Since I was already on the couch and Mr. Bliss has been working the No-One-Has-a-Clue-What-Time-He's-Getting-Off shift, I decided to sleep on the couch.

Which may or may not have been the root of the problem. The theory shall be tested soon.

When I woke up five hours later, I was not a happy camper.

*sigh*

Having bad dreams is such a bother. And it was a strange bad dream too. Not so much the details as the tone of it.

I'll detail it below and though I dabble in dream interpretation, I welcome any thoughts any one else has as well.


***

First, it had elements of several movies: Knowing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Legion, The Happening...

It started with Mr. Bliss and I in an empty room on the ground level of a house or business.

The walls were white or very light colored and the room seemed empty except for he and I. We were naked (or almost), with my husband embracing me from behind. We were facing a door flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows.

I looked outside and saw a man in a truck. He appeared to be watching us. I asked Mr. Bliss if the man was watching and he said yes.

We decided to cover the windows. I found lots of light-colored fabric on hangers and picked it up. I wondered how I would hang it because the windows were high and I didn't have anything to secure the fabric with.

Creepy how the man from the truck (and I think another man) appeared in the room, behind us.

He began talking about a drug he wanted us to take, making it sound like it was something fantastic. We refused but he managed to give me some kind of shot with something from a tube (like the ones I've seen some indigenous people use with blow darts).

I immediately got angry and wanted to hurt him/them. I think I told my husband to detain the guy(s). I think I tried to fight the one who drugged me but eventually he/they left. Suddenly my husband and I were clothed and we left the building too.

We knew we had to leave the building.

We were standing close to the door of the building we left, which opened onto a big square like the end scene in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the version with Donald Sutherland).

I noticed a huge pond in the middle of the square.

Then I noticed that people seemed to be dying by being slammed (or slamming themselves) against some kind of barrier (shades of "The Happening") but I could only hear it, not see it.

Suddenly I saw bodies appearing on the pond, which had frozen.

Once we stepped out into the street, men began coming from various directions to harm us (reminders of the men from "Knowing").

It became a lucid dream of sorts. I told myself it was a dream and tried to wake myself up because I began feeling very afraid, like if I/we was/were killed in the dream, something equally awful would happen in real life.

I think I managed to wake up for a few seconds because I have a vague memory of seeing a superimposed image of my real life surroundings. But I got sucked right back into the dream. It was like I was struggling against an invisible barrier while underwater. It was awful.

When the dream continued, Mr. Bliss and I managed to elude the men but then ordinary citizens began pursuing us. Not in a pack or continuously, but sporadically, like letting us know that even if we escaped we would never be safe.

There was an old woman, like the one in the early diner scenes in "Legion" who came at us.

At that point, I know I was in a panic. I don't remember having a conscious thought of "what the hell are we gonna do now?" but i opened my mouth and began chanting "nam myoho renge kyo".

The old woman began convulsing and was unable to continue towards me.

My heart sang as I realized we were safe.

I became a little frightened when I forgot the words but the people around me began to chant as well. The sound spread until there was a multitude of voices chanting in unison.


***

I don't know what the dream means but a literal interpretation would say it's time to start chanting again.

When I began studying the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and chanting in the early 90s, the first thing I chanted for was a cessation of the nightmares I had had almost every night since childhood.

It worked.

My Buddhist practice and study has been dormant for a long time now. Maybe 10 years. I've had a few nightmares in the years since but very few compared to the number I had before I chanted.

Hmmm... I just had a thought.

Perhaps a metaphysical interpretation could be:  there's something I need to focus more positive energy on (represented by the chanting), in order to keep the negativity (represented by the scary/bad people and incidents) at bay.

Does this all bring me back to why I'm thankful for yesterday? It should, shouldn't it?

Yesterday was warm and sunny. Today was cool and rainy. Flood-y rainy.

It started out as cloudy but progressed to pouring in time for me to drive my daughter to work. When we were pulling off, I kept thinking how this was the first time all summer that we had to head out in such bad weather.

She only works three days a week but I'm thinking that in three months, at least once of those days should have been wet if not stormy. I can't recall either.

Today, visibility was dodgy and I drove slowly with my blinkers on. Folk were flying by as if they had magic glasses that allowed them to see through water and mist.

Worse, my side mirrors and the outside of my side windows were foggy. It was difficult to see drivers who didn't have their lights on.

The drive home was better. The rain was gone and the air was cleaner. Cooler too.

Despite yesterday's heat it was a wonderfully restful day, just as I planned.

Thanks God.

Today's bad dream coupled with navigating the deluge make yesterday a dreamy day of the best kind.

.

1 comment:

Georgia said...

Wow! You're awesome! I love reading your posts! :) Keep it up :)

xo

Georgia