Last night, I had the worst dream I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t realize it was a dream while I was having it, but I remember waking myself up on purpose anyway – it’s difficult to explain, as many aspects of vivid dreams usually are.
The gist of it was – a member of my family (who in real life has been estranged from the family for 25+ years) was buckling my kids into her car for a sleepover. She began doing so at a frantic pace, which alarmed me, so I called it off. But before I could do anything, she was pulling out of my driveway with the kids, and I was screaming at her that this amounting to kidnapping and I was calling the police. She didn’t stop. My two older girls found their way home, but she still had my younger two – they’re 3 years and 20 months. Meanwhile, the pre-planned game night at our house (but it didn’t look like our house) was beginning to take shape as guests were arriving. A friend from college (who I haven’t seen since) shows up with my cousin (the kidnapper’s daughter) as his date, and she is sullen and seems really angry. We manage to get out of her that her mother hasn’t been herself lately and somehow come to the conclusion that she is intending to commit a murder / suicide. Where the police were at this point, I don’t know, but for some reason, I couldn’t go out and look for them myself, and I was inconsolable. It was the most helpless, panicky, horrible feeling I could imagine, and I had to watch my parents watch their daughter go through this as well – the whole thing was just awful. Even though I didn’t know it was a dream, I squinched my eyes shut and woke up – thank goodness. It was one of those where I woke up out of breath, my eyes darting around my bedroom. I realized it had all been a dream, and I suppressed the urge to get up and have a reassuring look at my kids – what good would it do to interrupt their sleep? Besides they’d be getting up soon enough – I could see the light starting to come in through the window. But when I looked at the clock, it was only 1:45 am! What the heck? I had felt like I had a full night’s sleep! For once (and I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt like this) I felt well-rested and actually wanted to get out of bed – and I didn’t want to put myself in the position to have another horrible nightmare. So I laid there and mentally composed my blog post depicting my terrible dream, and I was able to fall back asleep. The dream I had next was actually quite a comical episode involving a (non-threatening) alligator in a restaurant. When my alarm went off hours later, I was back to normal – tired as can be, not ready to get up…
There must have been something going on last night because my 5-year-old told me about a nightmare she had had involving a circle of chicken pox.
So was that light coming into my room at 2 in the morning the light of a full moon? Do full moons cause nightmares or vivid dreams? I know my family and friends in law enforcement tell me that they are extra busy and have some of their most interesting calls on full moon nights, but now I remember driving home last night and seeing the moon – and it wasn’t full. So why was it so bright in my room last night? Most nights I can’t see without my flashlight, but last night I could see easily – I had just assumed it was the sun rising until I looked at the clock… that one’s a mystery that remains unsolved.
I have some guesses as to where certain parts of the dream came from – I had been reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban before I went to bed. Could my dream have been my own version of a boggart (a magical creature from the series which is a shape-shifter that takes the form of its intended victim’s worst fear – ie, something bad happening to my kids)? And I was listening to an old Don Williams song in the car yesterday (If You Could Read My Mind), which reminded me of a time when I was a little kid and Don Williams was playing as we were heading to my aunt’s house (the kidnapper in my dream). I don’t know why my college friend suddenly appeared or why he was dating my cousin, but the game night significance could come from the game night we have scheduled for tomorrow… just a few theories; I think the bottom line is obvious – dreams are WEIRD!!!
(and this is unrelated – but as I was looking for the Don Williams song, I came across this wonderful version of In The Ghetto by both Elvis and his daughter Lisa Marie Presley – a posthumous duet. I’ve made my youtube references as links in this post rather than videos so as not to force anyone to watch/listen to anything if they don’t want to)
You actually don’t have to watch a posted video until you click on it… correct? What a horrible dream… it would have freaked me out, too! Very well could have been your boggart. Then turned into a non-threatening alligator in a restaurant.
@Jamiahsh – you’re right, you don’t have to watch the videos until you click on them, but I thought embedding them in my post sort of obligates the reader to watching more than if there is simply a link… I don’t know – I’m tired!!
I’m going to comment here – really dreams are so personal and revealing I feel wierd about saying this but you know the part about it being an “aunt who is estranged” “kidnapping your children”. Is where the significance lies. Uh, you know when someone is estranged they are basically lost and you can’t look for them. I don’t know what the issues are/were that estranged the aunt but you should ask yourself if you fear a simular fate for your children? Anyway like I said its weird to analyze a dream in such a public forum, but dreams are really your own mind saying SOMETHING.
Different moon phases affect people (well water really of which we are about 90%) differently. I myself am more heavily affected during the dark of the moon. Lest you doubt the moon really has this power and is consistent enough to make a statement like that……….the moon MOVES the ocean and the tides can be predicted.
If it makes you feel any better just from the little tidbits I see here I know you are a great mom. You just need a little more mom alone time I think. Oh yeah and I think you should discuss your dream/s with JJ. Animals dream too.
@mysmichelle – thanks for your comment and insight. I’ve never (consciously) thought about if my children will grow apart as adults. I hope they will be friends, but doesn’t everyone hope that for their children? As far as the aunt in my dream – I don’t really think about her much, she came out of no where – I’m not really sad about the situation.
I think I have plenty of downtime away from the kids, I just don’t use it wisely. We have a wonderful babysitter who is trustworthy and has really reasonable rates, so I can take the kids there when I need a break. Problem is, I use that time to work, like cleaning the house, doing other household chores or volunteer work for the non-profits for which I volunteer (well sometimes I use it to blog, let’s be honest!) instead of doing other fun stuff I might enjoy more – what that would be, I don’t know which is probably why I don’t do it.
I don’t know if JJ wants to hear about my dreams – we’ve taken a step backward lately in the training since my son was banging on his cage and terrorizing him. He seems happy still, but I can’t pet him anymore. But maybe he’ll enjoy my (non-contact) company – I should try that.
Thanks for your thoughts on dream interpretations!
Terrible nightmare. Losing people you care about always makes the worst nightmares. Don’t know what to say on handing those.
I’m wondering about the full moon you saw. The moon was early in crescent phase last night
Link
http://www.moon-phases.net/calendar/index.php
@justj – oops, you read me wrong – I said I saw that the moon WASN’T full, and that I still don’t know why my room was so bright at 2 am… UFO maybe? 😉
Sorry for not being more clear.
Yep, I read it wrong. No idea why your room was so bright.
I understood just fine… was it clear with lots of stars maybe? I was walking at about 10pm and it was beautiful.
Ugh….I feel for you. I hate nightmares. Talking about them is good though. Hopefully you are well rested for tonight….
UFO? Nah. Government experiment maybe…? 😮
I hope you had a good night’s sleep last night and are having a good game night now. 🙂