Last week, I asked my readers about their nighttime dreams. Here’s what you wrote:
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I have a dream where I’m outside, and I’m sprung off the ground and into the air. I go super high—probably too high—and I realize eventually I’m going to have to come down. I start to fall, but like I’m flying down. I don’t hit the ground, but sometimes I get really close and I kick off and keep flying. I almost hit the tops of houses or big cement beams by a body of water. There’s usually a dock on that body of water where someone I know is standing, but I keep flying. And then it’s kind of over.
Inga, Minneapolis, MN
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As a child growing up, our Gramma lived in a big old house in rural Stearns County. When they were all younger, during the War and post-war, there were 8 kids 2 parents in that house. When my generation came along she was living on her own. Big house, lots of empty. Very old things. Military uniforms, high school letter jackets, and lots of cardboard boxes. Mysterious but not scary.
Flash forward to college. Huge house, 10 guys living in it. Classic 3-story structure. A wealthy Doctor once owned the house and raised a large gaggle of kids there. Now was the time for undergrads to slowly ruin it. My recurring dream is this.
In my dream for some reason I keep going back to grad school to finish off my advanced degree. It started when I was in my early 20's. I keep meeting new young people, but I keep getting older. The first couple of years I could hide the age difference. Then it becomes obvious. Now at age 55 it's.......... part nightmare. In this dream I've convinced myself that I can finish this grad degree in a snap. The ridiculousness of moving into the college housing scene with young students never sways my mind. I 'logic' and rationalize the attempt. And of course, I don't complete the task. So the next time I have the dream, my subconscious is aware of the failed previous attempts. And each time I have this dream, parts of both houses from my past figure prominently in the story. Kind of a merged house. I'm living in them, or parts of them. Then my subconscious takes me off to another dream.
Craig, Minneapolis, MN
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My current reoccurring dream is traveling. Always trying to get somewhere. Sometimes on foot in a big city, sometimes on a freeway in a car, many times in rural areas. There are always detours and distractions that keep me from getting to my destination. Sometimes the destination is known, such as Bible Camp or a conference, and sometimes it is unknown. In one of the latest I was in a forest with my son. The road became sandy and forked. Either way we would get stuck with our Buick. We were already stuck. We thought about walking, but 5 young (teenage) black bears were playing on the road ahead, and I worried about the mama bear being around. My boy was trying to give me a solution, but I wasn’t listening because of my fear. Later, after waking, I asked him what he thought he would have said. He said, “Wait until the bears leave, then we can walk.” (And for the record, I think the bears are his final subjects in homeschool, which are a trial for him as he just wants to be done! I may be wrong. Lol)
Linda, Eben Junction, Michigan
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I have a reoccurring dream—different scenes with the same concept. I’m driving somewhere. I’m on a wide road like a highway. I want to go one way but I end up going the complete opposite. I end up going over a bridge—it’s always over water. The bridge then turns into a county road, which turns into a dirt road, which turns into a wagon wheel road, and I’m stuck out in tall grass.
Then I have reoccurring dreams of zombies, and I’m the hero in every episode.
Shantell, Corcoran, Minnesota
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There are two dreams I have regularly. The first is that I’m in a warehouse, and I’m being chased by a bunch of clowns—five to ten of them—that look like the Insane Clown Posse. So not friendly-looking clowns. I’m running down the halls and I’m getting very tired, and I can’t seem to get away from them. I run around the corner, and there’s an elevator at the end of the hall. I run into the elevator—that turns out to be L-shaped—and I’m trying to close the door, but somehow all the clowns are able to make it in with me. The door closes and they attack me. But I always win. The End. (But it never really ends.)
The other dream I have is even more of a nightmare. I dream that I wake up to realize that I left the garage door open, and sometimes I catch the people stealing stuff out of my garage, and sometimes I just go out and find my garage completely empty.
Scott, Minneapolis, MN
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*Names in this blog have been changed to protect my family, neighbors, and friends in the neighborhood, and in a nod of appreciation to the beloved Swedish author Maj Lindman, I’ve renamed my three blondies Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka.