Messages

1

Dream Interpretation / Re: Dreams of my childhood home!

« on: February 07, 2011, 05:48:26 PM »

Thanks once again, Tony, for a spot-on analysis! As I was reading your message, it all dawned on me. Yes, during that time--when my mother drank (and my father, too)--I took it upon myself to protect my younger sister from their abuses. My older sister was often absent, being old enough to have a job and leave. I, on the other hand, was just 15 and had no place to go. So I made do with what I had.

In 1978, a little over ten years after we moved, both my parents stopped drinking. They'd both been hospitalized for different maladies, and when they were discharged, a whole new life began. But neither of them ever admitted they were alcoholics. My father passed away in 1998 at age 74. My mother's still living (at age 84) and is healthy.

During all the horrible time, I never let it drag me down into total despair. Oh, sure, there were many private moments where I prayed to God and asked "why me," but it never destroyed me. I never became an alcoholic myself, nor a drug user. My Christmases and holidays are nice ones, not excuses for getting drunk and wreaking havoc. As for my old house, I feel confident that one day, I will indeed return to it...but I'll return alone. There will be ghosts around me, but I will be the one pulling the strings and controlling what and what does not happen.

Thanks - Rod

2

Dream Interpretation / Dreams of my childhood home!

« on: February 03, 2011, 07:04:17 PM »

Tony, here's another recurring dream with the same theme. I haven't had them recently, at least not with water playing a part in them, but they've entered a whole new realm (which I'll explain).

From 1958 until 1968, my family lived in a beautiful Cape Cod my parents had built. It had a huge back yard (big enough to slide in), and one side of it was bordered by forestland that seemed to go on for miles. The house was atop a hill, a dead end street, and was the very last on the left.

My parents ran into financial difficulty, and the house was foreclosed upon. We had no choice but to move, a very trying time for all of us. My mother did not take it well. The shame and disgrace caused her to become an alcoholic, and she drank actively for the next 10 years. She blamed it all on my father, who also drank--though he wasn't as emotionally abusive as she.

Approximately 12 years after leaving that house, which I've always yearned to one day buy back, I began having dreams about the place. They've always been very vivid and stretched for a 20 year period. In the first dream, I'm walking the banks of a raging river. The water is brown and turgid; I can see huge trees being carried along. It's late winter, maybe the end of March (which is when were notified that we'd lost the house--a horrible day of fights and recriminations). Eventually, I come to an embankment and climb it. I'm surprised to find that I'm in the back yard of our old home, and the river was actually a stream that ran through a nearby gully. It had grown to enormous proportions! When I realized where I was, I woke up.

The second dream found me in a small boat. The water around me was very calm, and the sky met the water and was colorless. Trees were poking up through the water. Suddenly, I began to sink...but I wasn't frightened. And when I landed on the bottom, I realized I was once again in the back yard of our old home, only now it was completely submerged under water! And I could breathe! Upon this realization, I again woke up.

Since then, my dreams have always involved that house and water in some form. At one point, I found myself hiding in the basement. I could hear the people who lived there walking around upstairs and was concerned that they'd find me. Suddenly, I look down, and I'm standing in ankle-deep water!

These water dreams went on for 20 years, with the water aspect always acting as a kind of surprise. Lately, the dreams have followed a different pattern. Instead of water, I'm the age I am now (58) and have bought back the house...but as I enter it, I see that the previous owner has changed things considerably. I think, wow, I've got a lot of renovating to do. And then I wake up!

For years, I've wondered about the meaning of these dreams. They didn't disturb me, there there is definitely some meaning, I know. Can you help me?

Rod

3

Dream Interpretation / Re: Recurring dreams of a night sky!

« on: February 03, 2011, 04:00:33 PM »

Thanks for the advice and interpretation, Tony! I read your link and found it very revealing. Whenever I have these "star dreams," I always wake with the feeling (a feeling I also have while within the dream) that this is a portent, a hint of cosmic things happening. Not sure what, though I do think it has to do with my writing in some way.

I'm reminded of a comment I made in a rather off-handed way to a friend of mine about two and a half years ago. He was visiting, and we were discussing my book. I was sitting in a chair and had been surfing a laptop, which I was still holding. He asked how long the editing process would take, since I'd already been editing for quite some time. I replied, "well, however long it takes, I know that my life will be completely different from the way it is now once it's finished." The comment seemed to come from an subconscious part of me, since I rarely, if ever, talk about my novel to anyone. Since then, I've thought of that remark many times and truly feel that something good is brewing, something life-changing. I'd already had a few star dreams by then, and they've yet to diminish.

My goal, actually, is to land an agent and go on from there. Do your sons run a print-on-demand agency?

Rod

4

Dream Interpretation / Recurring dreams of a night sky!

« on: February 02, 2011, 04:02:54 AM »

Hey, Tony! Thanks for your assessment of my "dead friend" dream. It was very comforting.

Now, I have something else for you. In the last two years, I've had a series of recurring dreams about the night sky. These are not unpleasant dreams, though something always happens within them that both frightens and surprises me.

In the dreams, which are mostly set in the evening (though one or two have had daytime settings), I'm standing and intently studying the sky. Sometimes, it's very dark around me. The first time I had this dream, I was in the back yard of my childhood home--a home we left in 1968, when I was 15. Nothing in my life has affected me like moving away from that house. My fondest wish is to one day buy it back and live there (more on that in another thread, since I've dreamed about this place many times).

Anyway, in the first dream--which set up the parameters for all the others--I'm watching the night sky. The sky itself is full of stars. Much more than in real life. And the stars are very clear and sharp and somewhat closer than normal. And as I'm watching, something unusual happens. I see what appears to be a comet with a tail flying across the sky, and then it explodes with a loud bang! This frightens me, but I'm also quite fascinated by it. I woke up immediately afterward.

The dreams since then have followed this pattern, with slight variations. I'm always looking up at the night sky. Once in a while, there seems to be a spotlight of sorts on me, but beyond that, it's dark. The stars are clear, bright, and close. Once in a while, they're colored in pastel shades of red and blue, orange and green. And then, I see one or several of them start to move. Or there's a shooting star. In more than a few dreams (including the last one I had just the other night), I also notice a UFO and get very agitated. I wouldn't call it a fear, but more like an anxiety. One of the "daytime" dreams I had also contained a UFO.

I should say that I find these dreams interesting and relatively pleasant to look back on. I actually look forward to them because they're so real and intriguing.

I've looked up the meaning of such dreams, and the night sky and UFOs and comets and shooting stars all seem to point to a life-changing event, something good. I've been a magazine writer for years and have been working on a novel that's in the final stages of completion. My feelings are torn about this book--while I feel it's good and will sell, there's anxiousness there, too. Could the sky dreams have something to do with this? I feel they're connected in some fundamental way.

Thanks--I'm looking forward to your interpretation!

Rod