Wow, What A Dream!

Is anyone else having intense dreams during these pandemic times?  I certainly am and so is my husband.  Many are disjointed and make no sense at all.  We often can't remember all the details to share, but know it was intense, crazy or weird. 

However, on rare occasions, a dream is so vivid with remembered details that we can't wait to analyze its meaning and purpose.  I had such a dream last week.

In my dream, I was traveling alone in an airport.  I remember immediately questioning why I was alone and without my husband who has always been my traveling companion - at least the last twenty years of our forty years together.  Oh, I get it, (or so I thought in my dream's beginning) this dream was going to take me back to a time when I often traveled alone for a corporate management position I held during my twenties and thirties.  But nope.  I was made to realize right away (and with great importance) I was my current age in the dream. 

A rabbit trail threatened to interrupt the dream as I continued to question my husband's whereabouts, when suddenly, I realized I needed to find my gate, without delay, to board the final leg of my journey home to Fort Wayne.  I saw signs with the number 230.  Maybe it was my flight number or gate number, I don't know for sure, but the number beckoned me to follow.  I searched for a long time, maybe an hour or so, turning this foggy way, then that foggy way, as I followed the number while entering and exiting different concourses of the airport's design.  I grew weary and bewildered as I knew my flight time was soon approaching and yet I still hadn't found my gate. 

My pace quickened.  I began jogging, then full-out running.  Now THIS, I remember thinking, feels very familiar.  I'm always searching and running frantically towards a destination I WILL NEVER FIND before awakening from a dream.  This odd realization that I knew I was dreaming (in the dream) helped ease my anxiety that I would never find what I was looking for ... so just go with the flow and see how far I get.

I soon ran up to a man sitting at a tall bistro table reading a book.  He was middle-aged with a tall, slender build.  His greying hair and beard framed a wise professor-like face beneath a brown plaid flat cap. He looked vaguely familiar and somehow I knew he was from Fort Wayne and could help me.  I breathlessly stopped and asked him for assistance.  Without lowering the book from his face, he looked at me over the top of his reading glasses and grunted a garbled reply while pointing to the sign 230 in the distance.  He seemed annoyed with my confusion and began rapidly flapping his pointing hand in the direction I should go with a DO NOT DISTURB ME attitude.  I continued running in the direction he advised.

Soon, I found myself away from the boarding gates and in a lounge area with a bar, restaurant, and soft music playing.  Everyone was relaxing, chatting softly and having a lovely time.  For a moment, I wished I could stop running and join them because it looked so peaceful and fun, but I kept running. 

I spotted a lady standing nearby at a podium overlooking the lounge crowd like a hostess.  She was about ten years older than me with dark hair piled on top of her head.  Her frame was thin and her face was wrinkled with wisdom.  For a split moment, I thought she resembled my Granny.  When I stopped and asked if she could help me get home, she calmly said with a pleasant smile, "My dear, you're already home.  This is the Fort Wayne airport."

A deep sigh exhaled from my exhausted body as my head flopped downward and my shoulders slumped in sweet relief.  I simply could not believe the wonder of it all.  I had actually, for the first time ever, found where I was going in a dream.  I had been there the whole time and didn't even know it. 

Upon straightening my posture upright, I looked at the lady at the podium, who was still smiling lovingly at my sudden realization, and I thanked her for her kindness and helpfulness.  I followed with an apology for my foolishness of not knowing where I was and then jokingly said to her, "Now, I hope I can find my car in the parking lot!"  She laughed knowingly, as I quickly reassured her while pointing my finger towards the glass windows overlooking the parking lot,  "I DO KNOW where I parked my car, thankfully!"

I then awoke from my dream.

The next morning, I recalled the dream vividly.  I was still marveling with relief of the unprecedented conclusion.  During my morning devotions and God-time, I felt God's urging to write down the dream details in my journal so I wouldn't forget.  I did, detail by detail.  As I wrote the amazing ending, I felt the Lord put two things on my heart. 

First, I was shocked to consider His revelation, while writing, that the woman at the podium was actually me in the future.  That never occurred to me before.  While the hair and wrinkles could be me in ten years, she was also thin and wise.  I'm not very thin, thanks to an additional quarantine fifteen, nor do I consider myself as wise as she, but there's always hope, right?

Secondly, it was brought to my attention as I wrote the year 2020 on my journal entry date, that it has been exactly 40 years since my high school graduation in 1980.  God reminded me of the Biblical significance of 40 years and days.  Like a panoramic movie, my 40 year work journey instantly replayed before me with it's varying concourses and arrival and departure times.  Each journey was unique, knowledgeable and brave, yet always guiding me home.

Being the Enneagram 5 that I am, I googled lucid dreams and found the following in my research:

Ian Wallace, a psychologist and dream specialist based in Scotland, wrote the book “The Complete A to Z Dictionary of Dreams: Be Your Own Dream Expert.”  Wallace says dreams are a way to “understand who we are, who we’ve been and who we can become.”

It really has me excited to ponder the next decade.  Here's to a thinner body and wiser soul!