EARTH DAY DREAM, 2017. WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?

What is a dream all about? A peaceful, blessed dream especially?

Early this morning (Earth Day, 4/22/2017) I was awakened by just such a dream.

Secretary of State John Kerry (with granddaughter on his lap) signs Paris Climate Change Agreement at United Nations General Assembly Hall on Earth Day, 2016

Public domain: United States State Department via Wikimedia

Generally, I have trouble remembering dreams. Dreams fade within minutes or hours.

But this one I remember. It had to do with peace. Global peace.

Somehow I was somewhere with people I knew. They were younger than me. I seemed to be in my sixties or seventies. Who were the younger people? Friends from olden days? Former students from the University of Puget Sound? Friends and associates from socially responsible investing connections? From church connections?

I think they were former students, about ten in number, traveling in a couple of cars, headed toward something like a second floor ballroom in a wooden structure, perhaps an inn or two story hall of some sort in a woodsy lakeside town. 

Some place like the lovely, little town of Mineral, Washington, in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.

Upon our arrival there the scene shifted. We were in the ballroom of an old wooden structure, and maybe it was the old Mineral Lake log lodge above thelakeshore.  (Click on the link; you'll love the photo. You wonder "why that lodge?" Perhaps because I stayed in it overnight in 1955 or so. Then there had been no bed available but the innkeeper allowed my friend and me to sleep on the memorably hard wood plank benches in the lobby. Read about this and other 1950s adventures in my book, Growing Green Two Ways! Available at Amazon or from your library. )

In last night's dream, the scene unfolded quickly. My group was singing songs of peace and cooperation. Now get this: we were singing in Arabic! Fluent, happy Arabic songs.

That was it. The scene faded. I woke up.

This was such a touching dream of peace and global kinship that I told my wife about it in hopes of remembering it until morning (which is now) so that I could write about it (which I am doing. Narrating it to her worked (for me at least. I'm not sure whether it worked for her.) 

Dreams. Somehow the brain manufactures crazy images, perhaps designed to rouse us into full consciousness. Ancient texts tell us of crazy dreams experienced by individuals thousands of years ago: perhaps dreams of a visit by God or an angel with a call to action or communicating a guilt trip. Think of Moses, Joseph, Mary, or Abraham.

 Antonio del Castillo paiinting: Joseph Explains the Dream of the Pharaoh

In the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

I like the dream theory of Karl Jung, the Basel, Switzerland analyst. He thought of dreams as expressing unconscious hopes. Jung always encouraged dreamers to take their dreaming seriously. 

Karl Jung, 1910

In the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Following Jung for guidance, I'd interpret my Earth Day dream, 2017, to mean that the wonderful people with whom I’ve been connected are afraid neither of Arabic nor of the larger global family. They value global citizenship. They believe that greater knowledge of world cultures could somehow lead to celebration and harmony. The dream just expressed that hope in some beautiful imagery that I wish to remember and use, like Mary, mother of Jesus used hers. That is, for inspiration.

Maybe you have similar dreams. If so, may God let our dreams of peace become reality for our and all future generations. 

Please share with other dreamers you know by clicking below on M, F, T or other social media symbols.