Falling cot dream
I dreamed that I was at a desert oasis with friends, and went off to lie in a depression in the sand. All is very peaceful. Then a very big, heavy metal cot containing a big baby, which is nearby, lifts, and starts to tip over and fall on me, and I raise one arm to hold it off, still not ruffled, but find that the cot is too heavy.
Meanwhile, the baby flies out of the cot into the air, and I look at it anxiously, but it is actually laughing, and lands safely.
I call out to my friends, but no one hears, as they are deep in conversation. Yet I know they they will eventually notice my dilemma, so I lie there calmly, holding the cot from falling onto me. I am more concerned for the child's wellbeing, and also, a voice calls out to me three times, very clearly, 'Help Bill. Help Bill. Help Bill.' I wonder who Bill is, and wake up with that thought in mind.
Later, I made a rough colour sketch of the dream, and also spontaneously wrote a story as a creative response to it (below), something that I often find helpful in getting to the underlying message of the dream.
On waking, I realised that the Bill my dream spoke of is probably a person I know only by email, an older man who has been struggling to get past some very disturbing psychic experiences from many years ago, and to find some inner peace. I have been listening (by email) - sometimes with irritation, for he does go on - to pages of his reminiscences and often chaotic reflections, and figure that maybe it's time to offer some thoughts, or at least, to encourage a more optimistic perspective. Tactfully and with much restraint, of course, because no one really knows what is in another person's soul, or what that person has come into this life to do.
Story based on 'Falling Cot' dream.
Many years before there was television, a young girl went into the desert with three friends, and after a long walk, they came to an oasis, a place where a natural spring bubbled up, and green plants could grow. There, they sat in the shade of trees and after eating their sandwiches and sweet purple grapes, they told each other about their dreams.
The girl loved to talk about her dreams, and to hear about others’ dreams, because she believed that the dream world really existed, and that those things that they saw and did in dreams really did happen. Her friends laughed at her about this, calling her - sweetly and with little hugs - naive and childish, which did not bother her in the least.
One friend, whose name was Alex, dreamed about a bed that he had slept in as a little child. He remembered that bed because it was made of silver, and very heavy. "In my dream", he said, "the bed carried me far way over the sea, and became a boat, and took me to a land of many foxes. That is all I remember", Alex said.
‘Oh, I love foxes!’ exclaimed the girl, "and there was one in my dream as well. I was standing on a mountain looking over the valley with my baby brother, and I noticed a little fox in the grass, gazing at us. My brother ran towards it, that kind of waddling run that he used to have when he was smaller, and he disappeared into the grasses with the fox. I was very upset, but I knew the fox wouldn’t hurt him".
"Well", said another friend, whose name was Jenna, "I dreamed I was a crane, flying, and it was wonderful".
"I don’t remember my dream," said the other friend sadly.
So they sat, talking quietly among themselves. It was hot, and the girl lay in a little hollow in the sand where it was shady. After a while, she feel asleep.The girl awoke with a start, and saw her friends still talking. They had been dabbling their feet in the cool spring, and were standing beneath a tree in deep conversation.
All of a sudden, the girl saw a great silver cot falling out of the sky and called out, “Watch out! That’s your dream bed, Alex, about to fall on you!” Alex paid no attention, even when the bed just missed him, and fell onto the girl. But she was ready, and held it off, though it really was heavy.
Then the girl saw her baby brother falling from the sky, laughing as though he were on a playground ride, and he landed lightly on the grass. “Oh hello dear brother”, said the girl. “So, you’ve had enough of foxes for now”. “Look”, she called to her friends. “My brother has come back from the fox!” No one heard her.
Next, the girl saw a great white crane sailing across the sky, and it reminded her of her friend Jenna. “Jenna!” she called. “Come down and see us!” but the bird called back, “I am on my way to the sea where the whales are playing”.
And then a little box fell down beside the girl, and on it was the name of her other friend, Tony. It was beautiful, but locked, with a little key still in the lock. She knew at once what it was.“Come over here. Oh come over here” the girl called to her friends, and this time, they heard her.
“What is that silver. . . . oh!” exclaimed Alex. “My bed! The very one I dreamed of! How can that be?” “And there goes your crane, Jenna, on her way to watch the whales play” said the girl, pointing to the crane that was circling around them before flying out of sight. “How did you know that I was flying to watch whales?” asked Jenna in astonishment. “I didn’t tell you that!” “No, you didn’t. The crane did”, said the girl with a big smile. “And see, here is my baby brother, come back from the fox”. The girl’s friends looked totally perplexed, especially when they spied a little red fox disappearing into a burrow beside one to the trees.
“Here Tony”, said the girl, handing the box to her friend. “I believe that is the dream you forgot last night”. Tony stared at the box and the girl, not sure what to do. “Before you go to sleep tonight”, the girl continued, “why not open the box and dream that dream again?” Tony nodded dumbly.
This was all too much. In fact, as the friends walked home, they could hardly talk from astonishment. The girl just smiled. She smiled because she knew that the world was full of surprises. There is so much that we don’t know about it.
As she parted from her friends to go home, Alex said quietly, not quite believing what he was saying. “Maybe we live right beside the land of dreams, but just don’t see it.” Jenna nodded. “Yes, maybe it is a real place after all, “ she said. Tony shook his head. “I just don’t believe it! Somehow, you’ve played a trick on us,” he said to the girl, his eyes full of admiration because Tony did appreciate a good trick. “No,” said the girl. “No trick. You just have to believe”, and with that, she went home smiling all the way.
(Fox drawing from 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint Exupery)
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