Friday, March 04, 2011

Weird Dream

Last night I had the weirdest dream. For some reason my husband had decided to seek a divorce. That should have devastated me, but the truth is, that's what was probably the weirdest part of the dream: my lack of intense emotion in response to the situation.

The only thing I can figure out now that I'm awake, is that since I've already suffered through the intense emotion of losing his physical presence through the ultimate separation of death, I had nothing left to give to a different, though potentionally more messy, separation.

I have to say, he did look fine, in the best physical shape I've ever seen for him. Maybe that's the message of my dream. He's lookin' good now? Maybe I have to work harder on my own spiritual and inner beauty to keep from being separated eventually? It's quite a puzzle.

Will I be able to translate any of this to my writing projects?

Do you ever have weird dreams? What is your typical response to them? Have you ever used what you learned from them in another facet of your life?

19 comments:

  1. I have weird dreams all the time. I tend to try to enjoy them for what they are. Sometimes I will derive a story from them. I used to write them in a dream journal, but haven't done that for a long time.

    Occasionally my wife will wake up angry with me because she's had a dream in which I am with another woman--usually my ex-wife. I always try to reassure here that it was only a dream and I have no control over what she dreams. I think it's somewhat funny, but at the same time annoying when this happens.

    Dreams are telling us something. Sometimes its pretty obvious. Other times it's kind of a mystery.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  2. My dreams are almost always of the weird variety. I use them for story ideas quite a lot, actually.

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  3. Lee, I can see where that's annoying, but it sounds like you're doing the right thing in reassuring your wife. You're a keeper!

    Angie, I'm glad your dreams are useful. :-)

    Probably one other thing is weird: I don't usually remember dreams, so they have to be unusual for me to wake and remember them at all.

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  4. THat is an odd one. Mine are usually nightmares if something is bothering me, but the loopiest dreams I ever had was when I was pregnant. Nothing like having another person inhabiting your space to send your dreams into a loop.

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  5. Mike M5:22 PM

    You mean your dream wasn't that one where you find yourself at school with no pants on? Just like that dream, yours is not literal. Rob, out of character, taking you to a nightclub. Divorce.............no.

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  6. The strangest dream I've had with Decker in it (apart from the nightmares I had just after he died) was the one time I found him sitting in the rocker in our living room. I sat at his feet and began crying. He asked me what was wrong and I told him I was crying because I had lost him. He simply smiled at me and told me "You'll never lose me."

    I'm thinking it's the same way with your husband. You'll never lose him.

    As far as the lack of emotions you experienced, I'm finally at a point where I'm no longer an emotional mess seeing Decker in dreams and it's been 10 years since he died. I know you've been widowed longer, so perhaps that is why the detached feelings.

    I hope you are doing well.

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  7. I just love to have dreams that include special people in my life that have passed on! I believe those dreams are some of the tender mercies we are blessed with. Okay--it's a little weird but it sounds like you have made it into a positive.

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  8. I have strange dreams all the time. Some play just like movies and I try to remember as much as I can to use for story ideas.

    I have only had one that I knew was for sure my subconsious predicting the future. I have had a couple that made me wonder.

    Dead loved ones often appear in my dreams and acting out of character. Last night for instance.

    The dream from the night before was gruesome and very realistic feeling. I could write it out but you might have just eaten.

    Only take away what your feelings tell you to take.

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  9. Heidi Murphy12:04 AM

    I often dream that I'm in school and I find out I have a class I'm having a final in and I've never been to the class. Or I can't find it.
    The other dream I dream kind of often is one where I'm flying back in to Uyak Bay Alaska (where I used to live) or else watching someone very rich fly in. It's such a strange thing to recur. Most of my dreams are location-driven.

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  10. I have terrible recurring nightmares in which I can't locate all my kids during a natural disaster--usually a tornado or volcanic eruption. When I dream about my dad, who died in 1998, it's like he's come back for a brief period of time and he's always very sad and full of regret. I hate those dreams.

    Then there are my usual, highly entertaining, whacked out dreams which make me wonder if someone injected me with a hallucinogenic substance just after I'd fallen asleep. Unfortunately, they're always so weird and out there that I can never come up with a story out of any of them.

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  11. As a writer, I've found sometimes vivid dreams are useful for creating stories and sometimes not. I've had two that turned into stories. One was about two strange clay Anasazi pots that took on the shape of faces. That became a short story in a collection A Deal on a Handshake. Another, I dreamed that a woman looked into a grave and the wrong person was buried there. Though I never wrote it up exactly it served as inspiration for a story or two. If it's a particularly good dream, grab a pen and write it down. You many not recall it in the morning.

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  12. Anonymous11:48 AM

    All the time.
    That is an odd one...
    But for fun I sometimes chat with my dream-savvy friend, or SHE hits one of these sorts of sites for guidelines to symbolic meanings:
    http://dreaminterpretationsguide.com/dreamdictionary/
    or
    http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/
    Search for the symbols in your dream... death, divorce, husband.
    Some of these sites say the lighting (day or night) or location is significant, or whether or not a door is open or closed, or a window, etc.
    I use my weird ones in stories, yes. Some have been published. :)
    I'll never tell which started out life as dreams though, bahahaha.
    Well maybe I will... I don't know.

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  13. One dream/nightmare woke me up early in the morning. Getting back in bed after going to the bathroom, I thought, "Wow! that would make a great horror story." I wondered if I should get paper and pencil then decided I couldn't handle writing the notes let alone the story. I went back to sleep.

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  14. I ALWAYS have weird dreams. Take for instance, the one I had the other night- I was married to a man who was very rich, very powerful, and very abusive. I was desperately trying to find a way to escape but first I had to go to the post office for him to mail some cats by pushing them through a hole in the wall. Another time I had a dream that Kathy Van Horn married me to Tim Allen in Burger King, and in another dream I went to China to get a job chasing giraffes up a hill. It was a lot of fun, I might add. (Chasing the giraffes, not marrying Tim Allen... he's really not my 'type'.)

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  15. I rarely remember my dreams. I often remember that they were weird or bizarre however! One time I did have a dream that I wrote into a short story. I got up and made notes, the only reason I remembered it!

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  16. Andrea12:18 AM

    I have weird dreams sometimes. My typical response to weird dreams is to write them down. The longest one I ever wrote was twenty straight pages single spaced Times New Roman.

    Mostly I just like writing them down for the stories they present.

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  17. How fascinating all your dream experiences are! I like the variety of ways you've reacted to them, from simply writing them down, to interpreting them, to using them as a basis for writing projects.

    Thank you all for visiting and commenting. I appreciate your taking the time.

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  18. Hi Marsha! Did Colt and Julie tell you they visited me? It was fun to se them.

    I dream almost every night. Quite a few of my books are from dreams.

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  19. Hi Taffy, yes, Colt told me how much he and Julie loved seeing you and your family again.

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I welcome your comments.

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