Image from here.
My dreams are vivid, recurring, and (according to Wade) indicate that I am a “swirling vortex of anxiety.” I get the usual suspects—I forgot my clothes; my teeth are falling out; it’s the end of the semester and I never made it to that class in ancient European history.
But then sometimes my dreams are really nice, the kind that make me feel like Caliban from The Tempest who says, “when I waked/I cried to dream again” (III. ii.). When Wade was on his mission, I dreamed he came back to visit me and for hours held onto my little toe. Every once in a while I dream about a new baby, or that I’m alone roaming the halls of the Salt Lake Temple. The morning Bruce and Shar drove me down to the BY to start my higher education, my mom says she woke me up giggling—“because I’m having a happy dream!”
And then I have this voice of reason, so crucial in my everyday life my subconscious has come to rely on it, that pops in and talks me down from particularly worrisome visions. Let’s call it Sane Anne.
I’ll be dreaming I can’t graduate from high school because I didn’t hand in any essays for AP English, and Sane Anne will come in and say, “Remember you taught Senior English? So surely you graduated. It’s okay that you didn’t hand in your essays on time. You got past it and did good things!”
Or I’ll dream that Wade and I never actually married and are hence living in sin. Sane Anne will chirp in, “Remember how you got married in the temple? This is all on the up and up.”
During the almost nightly playback of my high school performance dream (I know, it’s pathetic), Sane Anne helps me find my costume, or remember my lines, or tell Robyn Mousely I had to miss rehearsal because I was in the hospital giving birth by Cesarean.
Sane Anne sounds a little bit like my mom, who loves to analyze dreams and can put a reassuring spin on the weirdest of nightmares. So just for fun, this week I’m turning Hey Nonny into a virtual office for Sane Anne, just like Lucy the shrink in Charlie Brown (only I’ll be nicer). Sane Anne’s on loan to analyze and practicalize your dreams. In the words of Joseph of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, “Tell me of your dreams my friends, and I will tell you what they show.”
Come on, what else are you going to do to beat the heat?
Posts
I dreamed (how do you properly say that?) this morning that Adam came back hiking and did not tell us he was here for a few days, then was with some other girl, and then I was shopping for my mother's birthday gift at a garden store, with art work and a lunch place and they had llamas and Adam wanted to learn to ride the llamas, which was a very expensive thing to do and he started right then and there, so I had lunch by myself, and the Scot and Maurine Proctor joined me and wanted my opinion on there house plans for DC and the house was going to be 20,000 square feet and I wanted to tell them that was too big, in the kindest way, but they disappeared and so I left on my own. There's more, but you are probably getting bored. Like in the middle of the dream, I kind of ruined the painting I was looking for, and I just left it on the shelf. I woke up overwhelmingly frustrated. Who reads this, Anne?
ReplyDeleteEver since Lost ended, my dreams have been drab. I used to concoct all sorts of endings to Lost during my dreams. They usually involved Jack fighting Voldemort and Kate running for her life from Arvin Sloan. Betcha wish you could've seen it!
ReplyDeletei had a recurring dream as a child (which i have not had for awhile) that there was a piano on an island in the middle of some water in my living room and i could not get to it. and for some reason i was desperate to get to that piano and was sick with fear at not being able to get to it.
ReplyDeleteMom,
ReplyDeleteVery funny. First, don't worry about who reads this; it's only people we like. Second, it's possible you're experiencing some stress. I'd say Adam represents your children with their varied, sometimes wacky (as in llamas) plans, and you might feel like you're struggling to keep track of them all. Lunch with your Mom at the garden center is easy: this represents things you love. The art would be the wedding--you're working so hard to create something that will be beautiful, and you're hoping your efforts are well directed (which they are). Scot and Maurine Proctor I'm not sure I can help you with, though their house plans sound too big to me as well.
Heather,
Your J.J. Abrams-esque dreams prove you are as lovely in your subconscious as you are in real life. Although you (the witty and ripped Sidney Bristow) have had enough of deception (Arvin Sloan/Butthead), you still believe in the triumph of good (the handsome and reliable Jack) over evil (Voldemort). Also, you and your inner Sidney may be craving some adventure. I can't in good conscience recommend the blue dress--maybe an exciting pedicure?
Pam,
This dream is yours because you've always been an artist and wanted to create beautiful things. It was in the living room because like Belle in Beauty in the Beast, you "want much more than this provincial life!" (Not to say your childhood living room was provincial--I'm sure it was lovely). Maybe you haven't had it in a while because you are creatively fulfilled.
What does it mean when you don't remember your dreams? Is it true that EVERYbody dreams, they just don't always remember them? So really I almost never remember my dreams...which is good because the ones I am aware of usually cause me to wake up sobbing. I can't remember ever having a really really sweet dream. What does that mean?
ReplyDeleteOk, but there was a dream I had yesterday morning...but the meaning is pretty obvious. I had gotten up to go running with my friend Jenn but Lucy was wanting to eat just then, so I nursed her in bed and of course fell back asleep. I dreamed that Jenn's husband was getting really frustrated with his two boys (who are angelic in real life and Ben would never get frustrated at anyone)and they weren't minding him. In my dream I was shocked yet relieved to see Ben get frustrated with his kids. I think I've got that dream figured out...but you are welcome to "have a go"
oh yeah, mom...I think you are stressed. My conclusion, drink diet coke and get weekly massages/pedicures until the middle of August.
ReplyDeleteAnne, thank you for the more than kind interpretation, I felt much better about my dream. Mary, thank you for the compassion. Pedicures are high on my list.
ReplyDeleteDear Mary,
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that a woman with a reputation for falling asleep within 3 minutes of her head hitting the pillow (and sometimes sooner) has a hard time remembering her dreams. That's because you are so comfortable with your subconscious (and hence a well-adjusted individual). It must be a happy place most of the time, because you are startled (and hence remember it) on the occasions it is unhappy. Maybe your sense of humor comes from your dreams, and the funny things you always say are the secrets they whisper.
I imagine your interpretation of your running dream involves stress over sleeping in or relief that other people get stressed out over their kids. But maybe it was also a celebration of sweet Lucy (in the sky, with diamonds). Aren't you glad you have her instead of some rowdy boys?!
XOXO
Sane Anne
oo anne, i love it. what a beautiful interpretation.
ReplyDeleteThis is the BEST. I want a dream interpreter because I have some good ones, let me just tell you. How about this one (although I have many): I keep having variations of a dream where I'm starring in some sort of play--last time I was Elpheba in Wicked--and I can't find the script, I haven't taken time to memorize my lines, and I'm wondering what I'm going to do when they all find out I can't sing.
ReplyDeleteNice, wouldn't you say? I think I know what it means, but what does Sane Anne say?
Oh, and I'm very impressed that you are so mentally healthy that you actually talk yourself down in your dreams. No wonder I like you as my friend.
Dear Liz,
ReplyDeleteYou have this dream because you are a teacher to your core. Your desire to perform (sing, act, fly on a broomstick) is your desire to share your love of the literary. The feared lack of preparation reveals your strong tendency to overachieve, fueled by the need to always be your best.
This dream may also indicate the powerful energies you are now channeling in a different, more domestic, direction. Your current stage is more of the hearth, your script the storybook. Learning your current lines takes a new sort of practice.
And just to put this over the top, "because I knew you, I have been changed, for good."
With love,
Sane Anne
I know, this is lame to keep commenting on my own blog. But . . . this morning Thomas said to me (as I was taking his breakfast order),
ReplyDelete"Mom, do you know what dream I want to have next? Because my body lets me choose."
"Wow. What dream?"
"I want the one where I'm a baby inside your tummy, because then I can remember it and be born and be your little baby."
Priceless.
Can you just come to New York and be my friend all the time?
ReplyDelete:)
PS I did look for you at Stadium of Fire. But 65000 people got in the way. I was hopeful, though...