The book from one of my undergrad psych classes (yup, kept it)
When I was an undergrad student I took a psychology class on Dreams. The class was based on how our minds continue to work while we are asleep or as Freud put it, 'the royal road to the unconscious.' Nevertheless, I believe that dreams play a role in our waking lives. If you can a) remember the dream and b) jot it down as quickly as you can
Exhibit B: my writer's notes on the back of a Barnes & Noble receipt.
I said jot down 'as fast as you can!'
and c) interpret what the dream means, then there is a chance that your dream was a tool to helping you solve a problem you're having or dealing with an issue that has burdened your psyche or simply learned something new about yourself.
I've always been a fan of the mysteries of the mind and the 'potential' ways that the brain allows our dreams to reveal or conceal things from us.
I often recall my dreams in great detail. Sometimes I ponder them and other times I'll forget they ever existed altogether because, well, I don't know why. Either way I'm fairly in tune with my intuition and emotions and inner workings. Last night I had a peculiar and interesting dream. It fascinated and bewildered me but I later learned why.
Dream
It was set in what seemed to be Ireland. The land was lush, and sparse and mountainous. The sky was dreary and the weather was cold, enough to merit a wool coat and scarf.
Aside from the hills, there were stone buildings all around and wide streets. I was walking toward an ice cream parlor (of course, because cold weather calls for frozen food, right?!). I was alone. I didn't think about why or where I was going. I was simply in the moment.
Within a few steps I bumped into my father. I was stunned. He looked thin, and older and sad. He was just as stunned as I was. He was eating something but seemed genuinely happy to see me. Walking right behind him was one of my brother's (the one that lives in New York). He was with my father and seemed to look older as well. Happy to see them both, we continued on and walked to the ice cream parlor. I saw my reflection in the glass and I looked just as I do now. They sat at a nearby café table while I was about to order and then, in walks a little girl. I knew her in an instant. She was the 4 year old version of my little cousin, Nina. She walked in as if this was a pre-set meeting of sorts.
I immediately greet her with a warm smile. In this dream, it's her birthday and I know this because I don't miss a moment to say 'Happy Birthday, Nina!'. She flings her little arms wide exclaiming, 'Nani!' (which is my nickname) and I bend down and scoop her up in my arms. She's radiant, full of delight and wonder. Just as she was at that sweet innocent age. 'I've missed you!' she says to me. I place her little self on the parlor counter and look into her big brown eyes as she gleams and smiles back at me.
Her affection and love is genuine and I feel it.
But the moment in time quickly fades...
I wake up.
My Interpretation
My dream was a rare moment in time. I concluded that there were several emotions involved.
After analyzing the parts of the dream, here is what I came up with.
- My Father - symbolizes an authority figure but more so, a state of sadness. His waking life is full of grief and loss and strife. His presence in the dream relates to me in that my dream mirrored back to me that there is a part of my subconscious feeling a sense of sadness and loss over the love for someone.
- My Brother - symbolizes family ties but more so, distance and separation. My brother lives in New York and he is a person big on family (much like myself). His presence relates to me in that I often feel distance and separation and an enormous sense of a 'failed' family (outside of my husband and children).
- My little cousin - symbolizes nostalgia and happiness and love
Today is her actual birthday and she is not 4 but rather, 17. The dream took me back to a time when happiness and love were genuinely expressed by a child who stole my heart and captured my motherly instinct to reciprocate an authentic emotion.
The dream also encompasses the struggle to maintain relationships.
The desire to retain something that once was but may never be again.
The need to let go of certain truths and allow for loss to show you a different path.
The need to love and sometimes not get back what you've invested your heart and time into.
Sometimes our dreams allow us to add closure to an emotional struggle.
The path changes you but love always remains...
As for the ice cream parlor, well, sometimes everything seems better over ice cream...
What do your dreams mean to you? Have you ever thought about that?
I'll close this post with a 17th birthday wish to my little cousin who appeared in my dream: You captured my heart the very first day I met you, I babysat you at the same age you are today, I painted your little toe nails on kitchen tables, I curled your hair to look like mine and so many other sweet memories I will always have with you, as well as, celebrating an extraordinary day with me as my flower girl and it being you whom caught my wedding flowers...
Here's to you and to what once was... Happy Birthday...
I love you always... Nani~
April 12, 2003
