Welcome to the Dreams edition of Makes-Me-Smile Monday. After some heavy discussion from which I emerged more convinced than ever that I am always right and certain people are just plain cracked in the head (lol — “fun post”), I thought it might be interesting to share some of those cracks with each other. I’m not a Freudian by any means, but I think our dreams can tell us something about what we fear or desire or are anxious about.
One recurring theme of my dreams since I first got pregnant seven years ago has been that I can’t find anyone to marry. I might be pregnant (I don’t dream the getting-pregnant-part; it’s just, wow, I’m pregnant) or just getting older and wanting a family or something, and I run through all of the boys I knew or dated in high school and college and none of them pan out. I wake up frustrated or afraid or just plain sad, and then I roll over and see Dick, and I take a deep breath. An interesting take on the more straightforward abandonment dreams that pregnancy is famous for.
When I was pregnant the first time, I dreamt that I gave birth to a seahorse, and each time I nursed her, she shrank, until she completely disappeared. No wonder I was concerned about breastfeeding at first. I also dreamt once that I was riding in my mom’s old minivan with my siblings and parents. I had given birth to many little children who were graham crackers, and we had laid them out on the floor of the minivan. Brad started eating them, and laughed when I begged him to stop. Why’d you do that, Brad?
Learning to share a bed (in a sleeping sense; well, in all senses) is odd. Now I have two body pillows that insulate me from any night-time annoyances, and I’m not hesitant about plugging Dick’s nose or shaking him awake if he snores. A few years ago, he was holding me as I slept (much less romantic than it sounds) and suddenly he grabbed me so tight I woke up and couldn’t breathe. He later told me that he’d dreamt he was drowning, so of course he grabbed on to the life raft. He has also dreamt that I am choking him, which is probably why he doesn’t mind the body pillows, despite his occasional complaints.
I hope you’ve thought of a dream or two to share. To participate in the carnival, enter your name and (description) and post address so we can all come read it. Or leave it in a comment. If you do have a blog, link back, eh? If you need any help, please send me an email or a comment.
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I LOL’ed at the graham cracker dream!
I thought you were going to tell about when Dad turned into the Incredible Hulk and ate me.
I had a dream when i was 11 that still stayed with me all these years. There was this amazing suit (like the old diving suits made of metal, not like the clothes) that had the ability to be as hot as the sun. Of course is was used for mining metals until one day some crazy man stole it and started going on a rampage. Bullets would only melt as they got close to the suit (did i mention that inside the suit it stays relatively cool?). For some unknown reason he was chasing me through from apartments that were near our house. I had some grenades (what little boy’s action/adventure dream wouldn’t be complete without a couple of grenades) but they didn’t work. So i just kept running. The weird part is that every time i would go through a door it was like i was in a totally different building. Like a huge office building with tons of desks all over the place, then an apartment room, then a store and so on. Eventually i just woke up, but it was always a cool dream for me. Still don’t know what it means or what the suit represents in my life.
I have been racking my brain to think of some good dreams that I have had, but I can’t remember any very well. I remember a dream I had in high school that I was engaged to marry a guy a couple of years older than me who is in my ward, and while he was nice, I just didn’t want to marry him. The entire dream I was getting more and more panicked as the wedding day approached and I didn’t know how to tell anyone that this wasn’t what I wanted. Luckily the dream ended with me and him talking and both deciding that we didn’t want to get married. I am not sure what that was suppose to mean. By the way, Brock still dreams about being chased by bad guys and about being a super hero. He has on occassion woken me up with extremely violent tossing and turnings and when I wake him up and ask him what he was dreaming, it is usally he is saving some people from a bad guy that he has to fight. I think this means that Brock has a hero complex. The following story emphasizes this. His family tells me about a dream he had when he was younger (which he doesn’t remember) and he was talking out loud. He was a sports announcer for a football game, and every position was played by Brock. His commenting went something like this, “Millet drops back for a long pass, Millet lets it fly, Millet has an open receiver, Millet makes an amazing catch and dodges defenders for the game-winning touchdown.” He was saying all of these things out loud while asleep and his brothers gathered around to laugh. They still make fun of him for it today.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to post my link twice. I typed it in wrong the first time.
I made my blog public again
I love the seahorse dream!
Reminds me of one of my ‘mother insecurity dreams’ from when Cora was a baby. I dreamt that I left her(about 2 monthes old) sleeping on the floor the apartment I grew up in, in NYC, while I went out to look for a job. But then I couldn’t find my way back there, and I couldn’t tell anyone why I was in such a panic to get back.
I remember my dreams when it’s time to wake up but I go back to sleep to try to finnish them or resolve them and when I really wake up I barely remember.
But one pregnancy dream was when I dreamed that my baby came out of my tummy and was running around like a little toddler. He was a bot (even though I didn’t know the sex yet) and was running away from me. I didn’t feel that attachment to him and was in awe watching my baby walk and talk. I tried reasoning with him that he needed to climb back into my belly button b/c it wasn’t time yet and I needed more time to bond.
That’s a wierd one. I kept having dreams about having him early until my friend had a premie baby. Then I was content with waiting until it was time.
I haven’t had any pregnancy dreams about pregnancy yet with this pregnancy, but I’m only 5wks.
Shannon has only started to reveal the details of our parasomniac lives. She didn’t mention the times she wakes up in the middle of the night, sits up in bed, and starts reaching upward and outward, only to fall back to her pillow several minutes later. I often will turn on my nightlight and start writing gibberish on paper for five minutes before returning to my pillow. In the morning I wake up with no recollection of the writing, just the cryptic notes.
Just kidding.
I am posting my makes-me-smile content as a comment here. When I was a kid, I used to have a recurring dream about a pirate ship that arrived in the fog. I was commanded by a pirate to unpluck each strand of my friend Rob’s shag carpet using a flathead screwdriver. An impossible and demeaning, as well as pointless, task. Then at some point, while the pirate was distracted, I snuck up on him and plunged the screwdriver into his forehead. I think there was also a foghorn that blew. Did I mention the heavy fog around the pirate ship, and the orange-handled butcher knife on the pirate’s belt? I had that dream at least half a dozen times. Interpretations?
Shannon encouraged me to post an action-oriented dream, surely part of an upcoming post she’s planning …
I have noticed that trying to remember my dreams leads to greater remembrance of the dream. However, the dreams make absolutely no sense, however I try to piece together the logic. The more I think about them, the more they drive me crazy.
I once heard that dreaming is a way of sorting, cataloging, cleansing, or connecting the information absorbed during the day into the archives of your brain. Something along those lines.
I went through a phase where I could maintain my brain half in dream mode, half asleep. I’m sure this is common. But I often had dreams where I was flying, and it was so cool to continue flying while also being aware that I was having a dream flying.
One time I dreamt my grandma Ruth was behind a window that was closing, and she was in a dark room. My friend Mike, who baptized me a year earlier, said it was a prompting to do her genealogy work. I think I had been looking over some genealogy papers at that time. I never had that dream again.
Great dreams, everyone. i think we can tell a lot about people (especially men versus women) by the dreams they have. (i wonder if gay people dream more like their own gender or the other?). and i can tell a lot about my own (seriously weird but wonderful) husband by contrasting his strange “fight” dreams with those of the other men … shag carpet, honey?
Marcy–that’s funny that you remember the incredible hulk dream. that was a looong time ago. and it wasn’t that he ate you, he just took you back into the tv with him. but i was definitely worried that you would come to an untimely death (or at least wounding, i guess — people in tv don’t really die, right?) at his hands.
Brock & Melinda–thanks for sharing! i think the football/hero dream is funny. you know, if i had a dream like that, i wouldn’t even know what terminology to use to describe what i was doing on the ice … wait, i mean the field. (just kidding, i probably know more about sports than i would like. what am i saying–of course i know more about sports than i would like. i actually know that the world cup is hockey and the stanley cup is soccer).
oh Melinda, i wonder what it says about us that you dreamt about being forced to marry someone you didn’t like that way, and that i still often dream that i will find no one to marry. hmmm. and i think you should definitely help Brock dress up as a super-hero for halloween!
Gladis–like i said in response to Cassie’s dream, i don’t know why we mothers have all these insecurity dreams. we are good mothers, dang it! (well, at least you are. after what Avery told you about my bad behavior, you probably think i am awful…which is at least 5% true).
Tiffany–i’ve had a dream too where the baby is able to come out and then get back in the belly before birth. that’s strange. i guess it means that the baby is so real to us that we are picturing it as separate already or independent or something. i hope you are feeling less tired. lots of naps and water!!
Tom–wow, honey, you used to be a lot more lucid until a lot later at night. i think these dreams explain a lot about you, Ray (SKOW). actually, i asked about action/hero/fighting dreams after reading the other men’s (Brock and Mike basically) macho dreams, but, hmmm, pirates and shag carpet?