I had this dream last night. Briefly:
A friend of mine in Toronto has this nightmare of a house, she is a hoarder and it's packed to the rafters with stuff. You don't need details - it's all just stuff. Pathways are laid out in the rooms to navigate through the garbage. Her bed's accessed by crawling across boxes. The stairs to the basement is jammed with newspapers and magazines. The window on her door is covered with a garbage bag. And this was when we were allowed in. For the last twenty+ years I'd say no one has entered Hilda's (pseudonym) house. So I imagine it is far worse now. It's a huge concern. We had cleaned her out a few times in the past but it was all in vain, she refused to get psychological help, she accumulated more rubbish and excess was poured into her car so that she could never take passengers. A typical out of control hoarder. I wrote about her here.
Anyway, last night I dreamed of her. Sitting in a tidy house. Surrounded by mannequins in various costumes, elderly clothes, lounging around on the chairs and sofas in her much expanded living room - she had bricked in the front door.
I questioned her as to what she was doing, there were at least 5 of these faux humans, heads down reading, as was she.
"Oh," she said, "Finally, everything is taken care of, see? My friends and I are really happy together. We read to each other."
I had absolutely no trouble analyzing this dream. Dreams are nearly always about ourselves. Very personal.
I realized:
(1) I am isolating far too much.
(2) I have been indoors since last Thursday and the weather has been beautiful
(3) My door to new experiences has been blocked.
(4) My imaginative life is now greater than my reality.
(5) I need to bring some flexibility in to my life. I am getting rigid.
So, I'm heading out today. To interact with some children I know.
It's far too easy to get locked in place.
Good for you that you recognize your problem and are going to deal with it in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteThank you Gigi. Dreams can speak the truth to us when we're floundering and not realizing it!
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Good for you!!!! So good to be self aware and acting on both positives and negatives.
DeleteI do not often remember dreams, really wish I did as I would love to know more about myself. :) When I was younger I used to stop mid dream if it was "beyond believability" I hated that I was so rigidly attached to the "real" world that I couldn't dream otherwise. I haven't be aware of stopping a dream for a couple of years now.
Candace you had the power to "stop" the dream? That is incredible. I have the power to "start" my dream and some are repetitive but then my subconscious takes over.
DeleteMy repetitive dreams involve imaginary multiple rooms veering off from a house we used to have and stumbling over bodies sleeping and secret passageways.
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I went back and read your post about your friend. How sad for her.
ReplyDeleteHuge congratulations to you for recognising the problem AND taking steps to rectify it. I hope you enjoy your interactions (and am sure you will).
I dream almost exclusively in conversations rather than images (with a recurring nightmare the exception).
Wow on those conversations. Are they with those you know IRL or imaginary others?
DeleteI had a marvellous time with the children some of whom write poetry and I didn't even know that before. Listening to children is so powerful.
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People I know.
DeleteI can interpret some dreams but this one would h ave had me flummoxed.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoyed your day out and it gives you the boost you need to do it again!
I totally had such a good time along with a marvellous turkey dinner with packed up leftovers to give me another dinner tonight!
DeleteA lot of laughs, we all need laughs.
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The next time I have my recurring "house" dream I shall contact you, regale you, and hope for an interpretation!
ReplyDeleteI'd be delighted Pauline. I often can't analyze my own so Daughter does them but this was so clear, almost simplistic really.
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I'm hopeless at interpreting dreams. Only once did I understand the dream I had was based on the horror movie and crime based book I had been reading/watching the night before.
ReplyDeleteWere you able to sort out the actual message to you though River?
DeleteOur subconscious tells us interesting stuff about ourselves.
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Good that you can make some sense out of your dreams. Mine are so weird they make no sense at all. Your dream seems to amount to "I must get out more"!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Nick. I think I recall you telling me before that you couldn't remember your dreams just the feelings around them.
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I remember the odd dream here and there. Usually I'm lost or running away from someone. Which is puzzling as in reality I don't feel at all lost and I'm not running away from anyone.
DeleteMy problem is that I can't remember my dreams leave alone analyse them. Anyway, it is good that you could and you are getting out to enjoy the good weather.
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to jot them down right away Ramana because they do evaporate rather quickly.
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Ha! If I had had that dream it would make me very happy. I would see cleaning up the mess and enjoying the company of a bunch of faux humans as immensely pleasurable. The bricked up door would look like a much needed protective device. The same dream can mean very different things depending on circumstances, eh? Enjoy your day! I'm going to look for some bricks...
ReplyDeleteI totally get why you would love this dream, Annie after all dragging on your time by just about everybody around you. I'll try and transmit to you. Ha!
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This post and the previous one, how did you know? It’s me to a tee. I was about to compose a post in my head before writing it on exactly the same theme.
ReplyDeleteDo you think our kind of elderly lady is in great danger of disappearing into our caves?
We mustn’t, it’s unhealthy and we are still alive, after all.
Yes, the siren call of recluse, cave, isolation, tempts me constantly, backing away from life, reading, self imposed solitary confinement. I never regret going out and about. Ever. But need to get the first steps of doing so as a priority before slipping back into the comfort zone which isn't really all that comfortable, really.
DeleteWe are alive!
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You baby boomers are literally the most evil generation to ever exist. You are all psychopaths. You destroyed your own children's future, destroyed the economy, and then you sit back and laugh smugly about it. I hope you boomers enjoy the retirement homes! LOL!!! I guess what I'm really trying to say is, can you baby boomers hurry up and fucking drop dead already?
ReplyDeleteThat's a fine kettle of fish.
ReplyDeleteRe: Anonymous above. This same message was left on John Gray’s blog (Going Gently).
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Maggie. A lot of work if it's copy and paste rather than spam and of course none of these brave hearts ever leave a name as they whimper around the internet on their mother's computers.
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I too got the weird anonymous writer leaving me the same message. It's almost like the person went down my blogroll (or one of my friends') and copy and pasted the weird message to all of us as I see it showing up on many blogs. Cowardly sort.
DeleteWeird. Spam I understand and delete but the copy and paste thing is new and a lot of work it looks like :)
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I rec’d that comment, too, and chose to not release for publication as it violates my criteria — Anon., uncivil, irrelevant to topic for starters— one of few I’ve ever not released — just a troll, I think — best completely ignored and not worth mentioning.
ReplyDeleteI’ve read there are several different approaches to analyzing dreams, so how to know which to apply? I’ve tended to think my dreams simply reflect my feelings — I.e. anxiety, or in a few recuring dreams I had as a child, I still remember the events visualized as a child might perceive them, not as they actually occurred. But I’ve never extensively studied the different ways to interpret dreams.
Yes, Joared, you are correct, there are many ways but I believe the most important is that they rarely refer to anyone else - just different aspects of our own psyche, masked as others. Birth and babies are the most interesting. Jumping fearlessly - even though not ourselves is also a good one. And then flying I've always loved.
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Yes, one of my recurring childhood dreams was of flying down stairs, but I never landed. When I was an adult mother told me that as a toddler I attempted to walk down stairs but instead rolled the distance to the bottom —emerged uninjured but I didn’t recall the event. I’ve concluded that is what my flying dream on those stairs I had for so many years was about. Then there’s the childhood repeated dream of being chased and running as fast as I could I actually seemed to go slower with the chaser gaining behind me - never a conclusion on that dream either. I concluded there was anxiety in my life then though I could relate it to an event to which I was subjected when I was a younger child. One dream in particular as an adult i could relate to on several levels — was to my emotional state, life situation and identified individuals.
DeleteWell good for you for letting your dream nudge you into activity.
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