“I want to go home.”

I had an unsettling dream. I had originally awakened just before six a.m. and thought I’d meditate but I made the mistake of laying my head back down on the pillow and fell asleep for about thirty more minutes.

BIG mistake.

I remember bits and pieces of this dream but am losing the main narrative. Dreams are so ephemeral; they swirl out of my mind like smoke from a bundle of sage. I’m hurrying to write it down before the details disappear forever.

My mom decided she wanted to move to another city. I can’t remember the reason but I went with her. I recall that I was moving away from the angels who lived in the city we were leaving and why I would do that that made absolutely no no sense to me, but I did it anyway. This was weird and out of character behavior because in real life, my mom lived with us here in this house. She wasn’t the type of person to encourage me to abandon my family.

There are decades and lives that are not aligned in reality — my mom died years before there were any angels and I don’t live in the Pacific Northwest like they do, but dreams shapeshift and time travel, so in that regard I guess it all makes sense. Sort of.

On the whole, I like to stay put, I like security, I love the adventure of travel but I also like to have an anchor to bring me back, a safe haven, a sanctuary. I don’t really take risks like packing up all my stuff and moving away forever. For me, there’s no place like home.

Back to the dream…we found a house to rent and I was engrossed in decorating my bedroom in pink and lavender (details!) but I wasn’t happy. I was yearning for HOME. I can’t explain WHY but there were roommates and I stayed in my room because I like solitude. I missed the angels. Oh, my bed was a narrow hospital bed with a handcrank, not sure why; maybe it was already there in the room because I wasn’t sick, not in the dream.

My mom suggested we attend some kind of outdoor activity–I can’t recall if it was a theme park or a street fair or a sports game (things she HATED in real life) but I went with her.

I got lost and separated from her because it was too noisy and I became disoriented. A little boy about T’s age was lost too but he had a better sense of direction than I did and helped us both find the exit where I found my mom waiting for me. I remember thinking that I should escort the little boy to his grownups, but in my dream, he kind of vanished. I guess he was there to help me, not the other way around,

I told her, “I want to go home. I really want to go home. I really need to go home.”

She said “OK” and we immediately started packing to return home.

After that, I woke up with the strongest message in my head, “I want to go home.” As soon as I opened my eyes before I was fully awake, I repeated it out loud to myself.

But I AM home.

I already know there’s no place like home. It’s very special to me.

What was that all about?

Have You Ever Had a Dream Like This?

Have you ever had a dream that seemed to have been stitched together from a plethora of unrelated bits of fabric–a crazy quilt dream?

Here’s the parts I remember from last night’s dream:

There was a house in the forest.

Someone was trying to get in. He was holding a small old suitcase with a clown face on the front of it. (EWW, I know!)

I was tricked into opening the door and was subsequently taken hostage; locked away in a metal shed in the forest. It looked something like a high school locker but a bit bigger.

I managed to get out because the only thing holding the door closed was a bent up paper clip.

Once I got out, I encountered a deer with a string of solar fairy lights entangled in his antlers. He and I bonded and I was scratching his head.

We started to walk away when I heard someone from the shed calling for help. No one else had been inside when I was there!

When the deer and I went to investigate, we found Dick Van Dyke and liberated him. (Yes, DICK VAN DYKE!) He immediately started doing sit-ups and stretching, extolling the virtues of exercising at his age. OK old man, we get it. You’re fit as a fiddle.

Together, Dick and I gently removed the lights from the deer, although it didn’t seem as if he was bothered by them or in any pain.

DVD and I made a few phone calls to the police to search for the person who committed the crimes, but I’m not clear on the outcome because that’s when I woke up. My rational mind and my subconscious mind didn’t like what was going on.

As an aside, I don’t even LIKE Dick Van Dyke; I’ve never been a fan of his acting or his dancing or his persona. He wasn’t on my radar and I hadn’t read anything about him recently. I didn’t appreciate that he was hijacking my dream while I wanted to hang out with the deer.

There was an element of danger and fear, but feeling happy with my new deer friend. Other than that, I have NO IDEA what the message might have been, and now that I’m awake, the details are fading.

I guess maybe it was a warning to be more careful about who I open my front door to? I dunno, but I’m still shaking my head.