Lessons from My Dreams Part 2

The reason this post is titled "Lessons from My Dreams Part 2," is because two years ago I wrote a blog with the same name about a dream I had about my Dad.  If you would like to read that blog, click here.

A couple days ago I had another dream that I wanted to share with you all.  I have told myself on numerous occasions that I want to start being more mindful about writing my dreams down.  When I woke up from this dream I quickly typed up notes on it and boy am I glad I did as I feel the meaning of the dream sinks in more now than it did when I was experiencing it.

Have you ever seen the movie "The Never Ending Story?"  If you haven't, I highly encourage you to watch it, it is a fantastic movie.  The reason I ask is because some of the characters and themes that appeared in my dream were from the Never Ending story.

The last few months I have been spending a great deal of time reassessing my values and what my highest values are in life (more to come on this in future blogs/videos).  What I have discovered is that love has always been my highest value, I just never identified it directly (again more to come at a later date). 

I share the above because it sets the backdrop and provides the inspiration, I think, for the dream.

In the dream "The Nothing," (the same Nothing from The Never Ending Story) was coming to consume the world. The Nothing is essentially a void of darkness that consumes everything, especially all light and love.

In my dream I took on Atreyu's role as the hero.  I realized the only way I could save the world and stop The Nothing was by poring as much love as possible into The Nothing.

Even though I was up against The Nothing, a gigantic void of darkness, in my dream The Nothing, like most bad guys and evil things, had an evil layer that it liked to linger and lurk at.  I conveniently knew where this was and was able to drive over to it... again, very convenient. :)

On the drive over, someone who had been consumed by the nothing got in the car.  The person was dark and soulless. he looked like a cross between an evil zombie and an evil ghost.  He tried to get me, but I was able to grab onto the side of his head and focus on pouring my love into him.  This was the first real test of my strength and I was able to free the person, but doing so left me in a weakened state after.  This process repeated as I continued moving towards The Nothing; every time I gave my love to fight The Nothing, I was drained of love available to give.

I had reached a point where I was so drained that I felt like I was not going to be able to continue on when suddenly Falkor ( a half dragon half dog from The Never Ending Story) appears.  (Side note: as a kid Falkor was one of my favorite movie characters.  I used to pretend that one day he would appear and I would jump on his back and together we would fight bad guys and help those who needed help.) Falkor had somehow managed to escape The Nothing.  When he flew up to me I began to cry tears of joy because I realized I no longer had to face The Nothing on my own.  (As I slept I could feel the tears running down my face, the dream was that powerful.)  I jumped onto Falkor's back and off we went to fight The Nothing.

Falkor got me to where I needed to be and I began to make progress in my fight against The Nothing, but as I continued to fight on, I had begun to die.  I was dying because I was rapidly running out of the love I had to pour into the fight and was not getting refueled.  Much more was going out than what was coming in.

At some point during this fight, I am transported to a briefing room, the type of room you see in the movies where all the military people are sitting around making decisions (the best part about dreams is the ability to time travel and be in multiple places at once.)  While in this briefing room I am shown a map of the world and how fast The Nothing is consuming the entire planet (think any Zombie movie where they show the map and how fast the virus is spreading).

Everyone looks to me to decide what to do, but they can all tell I am dying.  That is when a few people stand up and offer to help me fight The Nothing.  When they do this I regain some of my strength, it is like their act of kindness/love refilled me enough so that I had more love to use to fight The Nothing.

I resume my fight with The Nothing and again am making progress.  I can see the top of the hill where The Nothing resides, but the hill is getting steeper and steeper and I again am running low on energy.  The Nothing is to powerful and has to many minions and evil allies. At this point in the dream I am fighting an army of The Nothing's prisoners.  I am running low on energy and slowly begin to die.  I see something in one of the prisoners, I don't know what, but I go to her and pour what little love I have left into her.  As I do this and she changes, she changes back to a human and then into a warrior who begins to fight along side of me.  I free more prisoners and they continue to turn into warriors who help me push on up the hill.

The warriors are able to hold off The Nothing's evil minions long enough for me to make my way to the final battle at the center of The Nothing.  I am in the car driving up the hill (don't ask me how I got back into the car, it is a dream remember) right before I get to the top of the hill, which has now turned into a mountain, I stop the car because I don't have the strength to drive anymore.  I begin to cry, again, feeling defeated, feeling like I am letting the world down.

Suddenly people show up and offer to help.  I recognize some of their faces as people who I freed earlier in the dream.  One picks me up and helps me back in the car, another takes over driving, the 3rd begins to hug me, and then hugs me tighter and tighter.  This person hugs me as tight as they can and tells me, "thank you, I am so grateful that you are fighting this fight to save all of us and give us all a chance at life."

This act of love, their embrace and words, from the unidentified person give  me a new level of strength.  I felt like Link from The Legend of Zelda must have felt every time he got all of his hearts fully recharged.  I actually think that image popped into my head during the dream.  ( See this video for an example ).

Before I go into the final battle I am able to record a speech that eventually gets played around the world.  In this speech I talk about how love is the ultimate power and that if we all, from this day forward, live our lives focusing on loving others and putting our love out into the world, then The Nothing and all other evils have zero chance of ever existing again. (In the dream the speech is very heartfelt and dramatic).

I charge into the battle and then the dream ends with The Nothing being defeated and white light fills up my mind.  I do not know if I survived the battle or not, but I was aware that The Nothing's presence had been eliminated.

I have reread the above a few times now and each time I find a new metaphor or a new interpretation of different elements in the dream and the dream as a whole.

What do you think of my dream?  Are there any particular elements to it that stick out?  What metaphors did you find?

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Please share them in the comments below.  If you found value in this blog, please pass it onto your friends and encourage them to "subscribe" to it.

I am looking forward to hearing what you all think of my dream.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

Lessons from my Dreams

I still dream about my Dad.  Even though it has been over two years, every couple months I dream about him. Each dream ends virtually the same, with me becoming aware I am dreaming about him then waking myself with real tears and an out loud cry for him... I usually remember almost none of the dream.
 
As I type this I have a fresh set of tears from another dream about my Dad, but this one is different, the memory is still here. And I think I am supposed to share it with you all as the words I am typing began to fill my head before I ever started typing.
 
At first I thought I had forgotten the dream and continued sobbing, but then I did something different, I asked myself a question about the dream. Suddenly I remembered almost the entire dream.
 
In the dream, I was talking to some stranger, whose face I could not see. It was hidden in the shadows. Anyways I was explaining to this stranger what a great little league baseball player I was when in fact I wasn't.
 
It should be noted that My entire little league career I think I got a total of 2 base hits in the two years I played little league. It wasn't because of a lack of skill. It was because I had developed such a low self esteem and low confidence about myself that every time I stepped up to the plate, I was scared to swing at the ball and I was scared of getting made fun by the other players when I faltered.
 
As I am telling this mysterious figure about what a "superstar little leaguer" I was I am suddenly transported to one specific game I played in. I am watching the game, but not from the stands. And the field is reversed almost like looking in a mirror.
 
This game was significant because all my life I'd wanted to hit a home run, but never did. This game was the closest I'd ever come.
 
I was explaining this to the mysterious stranger in the dream. As I am doing so I see myself come up to bat and instantly I can remember how I felt during that at bat. All throughout little league I remember I felt like a failure every time I went to the plate. Every time I walked to the plate my head was hanging in anticipation for my next failure.
 
This at bat was a different one. In my dream I could remember that day. I could remember that day as being one of the only days I ever stepped up to the plate with confidence, knowing inside myself I could hit the ball.
 
I told the mysterious stranger in my dream this as I looked at my 11 year old self, standing at the plate.
 
All my life I'd always wanted to hit a home run...
 
The pitcher threw the 1st pitch and I connected. I had never hit a ball in the sweet spot before,  I had never hit a pitch where it felt virtually effortless, and this one did.
 
As I am explaining all this to the mysterious figure, the dream slows down so I can tell and relive every detail of that moment.
 
Making contact with the ball
 
Feeling strong as it left my bat
 
Knowing it was a home-run
 
Watching it sail further towards the fence
 
Making my first step away from the plate
 
Watching the infielders look up and over their shoulders
 
The parents in the stands coming to their feet... I'd never had the stands come to their feet for me before.
 
Watching the ball, going, going, ...
 
"It wasn't to be," I told the mysterious stranger. As we watched the ball curve right for a foul ball at the last second.
 
As I watched all this vividly happen in super slow motion, I became choked up and told the mysterious stranger I could not continue my story. Tears began to flow.
 
"Why?" Asked the mysterious stranger?
 
"Because," I said
 
"Because, I figured out why I am seeing the baseball field at a different view than it really was.". "From this view, I can see my Dad's car parked in the field, he had come to watch me, and there it is." I began bawling uncontrollably in my dream as I pointed out my Dad's blue Ford Taurus to this mysterious stranger.
 
I was crying so hard. Suddenly the mysterious stranger rushed out of the darkness to console me - it was my Dad.
 
"Jess," my Dad asked, "why were you trying to make yourself sound like a better baseball player than you were?"
 
I don't recall what my answer was because at this point I realized my sobs were becoming more and more uncontrollable and I was starting to wake myself up.   In addition I was becoming aware of a tension in my arms and a numbing in my hands.
 
As my conscious mind began to take over, my sub-conscious mind began to fade away and so did the image of my Dad.  I squeezed my eyes tighter trying to hold the image, only to wake myself up with crying eyes, and my usual " DAD" shout trying to keep him from leaving.
 
As I became more aware I realized that the reason my arms were so tense and my hands were so numb was that I was hugging a pillow so tight that I was cutting off my own circulation. My pillow was my Mysterious Stranger, the hug was for my Dad.
 
So why am I sharing all of this with You.
 
Often, when I fall asleep, I think about specific things and how I can utilize those things/experiences to help people.
 
Last week I took a bunch of pictures of the sunrise. And as I was falling asleep last night, I asked myself, how can I use those sunrise/sunset pictures to help me help people?
 
And this is why I believe I remember as much of the dream as I do and why I am supposed to share.
 
Remember when I started writing this blog, I said "I usually don't remember my dreams, but this time I asked myself a question about the dream and suddenly I could remember."
 
Well as the dream came back to me the words "sunrise" and "sunset" kept flashing in my head. Then the words began to form sentences:


   
 
"Every sunrise is a
 symbolic beginning
 of a new day and 
 serves as a reminder
 that this day is a gift.
 So while you have it 
make sure you live
 your day doing, and 
saying what is most 
important."

 
 

"Every sunset is a reminder that the day is nearly over and that if you have not yet done the things that are the most important to you and told the people you love that you do, then you better hurray up and do it because tomorrow is not guaranteed. The only thing that is, is this moment.
 
 




And finally, the pillow... I cannot recall one time in my life when I ever hugged my Dad with such love and such intensity equal to the amount of love and intensity I was trying to squeeze through that pillow.
 
In this life, I am never going to get that opportunity to give my Dad a hug like that.
 
I took days, I took time, I took life for granted just like we all do.
 
Here's the thing: while I can't go back and change that with my Dad, what I can do is make a change going forward. And you can too!
 
My advice I am going to give myself and share with you is this:
 
When you hug someone today, tomorrow, and everyday for the rest of your life, think about hugging them as if that is your last chance you will ever have to hug them. 
 
The sun will rise and the sun will set. Life will continue  on, but there is no guarantee that you and I will continue on with it.
 
Thank you Dad for this lesson.
 
I love and miss you.

Enjoy the pics, 

Carpe Diem,

Jesse