Dreams

Dream jeans

/ edebock / 2 Comments

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When I spotted these yellow capri length jeans in one of our local thrift stores, I immediately recalled a message that I received from my daughter a few months ago.

I had a ridiculous dream that you were in last night. We went shopping together and you tried on this pair of bright yellow skinny jeans. They looked fantastic on you, but you weren’t sure you wanted bright yellow jeans. So I thought I’d just carry them while we looked around this HUGE store more, and then forgot I had them. You left before I did and then after I’d left the store I realized I was still carrying, and had accidentally shoplifted, these jeans! So the rest of the dream was me trying to sneak them back into the store without getting caught! But then I wandered the store for a long time, still with the jeans, trying to decide if I should just buy them for you! hahahaha!

I’m not a great believer in dreams, but this one seemed to be telling me something! I’ve never worn yellow pants before, but I had to at least try them on! They fit perfectly and at $2.50 they were pretty much a steal, so now they’re mine.

Of course, once I got them home, the challenge was to style them with pieces that were already in my closet. I was surprised to find out how many tops I had that looked good with yellow! In these photos I’ve styled the pants with a sleeveless top that was also thrifted. Though black and white tend to look too harsh on me, the overall geometric pattern gives the appearance of a softer grey which is much more flattering to my complexion.

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I had hoped to show you one or two other combinations as well, but we had a very difficult time getting quality photos for this post. At the time when these were taken, the air was full of smoke from distant wildfires which affected the lighting quite drastically. These were the best we got, so I decided to go with them in spite of the fact that the pants are actually a bit brighter than they appear here. Poor hubby, who had hardly ever had a camera in his hands until I added Fashion Friday to my blog, is my willing and patient accomplice, but I can only ask so much of him!

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The meaning of dreams

/ edebock / Leave a comment

Most of my dreams seem ridiculous and random. If I remember them at all, I certainly don’t analyze them or try to figure out what they might signify. Others, however, are recurring and do seem to have meaning.

As a child and young adult, I often had gory dreams about having all my teeth pulled or knocked out. When this happened, I’d often wake up with a sore jaw, but little did I realize that I was grinding my teeth during the night! Since I started sleeping with a bruxism splint, I’ve never had one of those dreams again.

For many years, in spite of the fact that I enjoyed my teaching career, in the days leading up to each new school year I had what I called my “school dreams“.  These were dreams in which everything went wrong.  All a teacher’s worst nightmares would visit me as the end of August approached! Though I anticipated the beginning of each new school year with excitement, I recognized that my strange dreams were a symptom of the stress involved in teaching. When these dreams started recurring several years after I retired, however, I was puzzled, but I soon figured out that my brain still equates stress with teaching. Regardless of the cause, it still reacts to higher than normal levels of stress by filling my nights with bizarre school dreams!

Last night, I had a series of unusually vivid dreams. In the first one, I was planning to catch a ferry. Where to, I have no idea, but I arrived early and had time to kill so I parked my car a short distance from the ferry terminal and went for a walk through the town which bore no resemblance to any place I’ve ever actually been. As I admired the historic architecture of the town, I found myself walking with another woman who urged me to explore a path that led up and over a hill between some houses. Knowing that I had a limited amount of time, I was reluctant, but I agreed to walk a little ways with her. Before long, I realized that I had gone too far and was in danger of missing my ferry. I turned around and began to run back to my car. I remember running and running and running, frantically hoping that I wouldn’t be too late. And then I woke up.

I don’t remember the second dream quite as well, but I do recall that I was supposed to be attending an awards ceremony at the local school. Shortly before it was due to begin, I was out on the street chatting with various people who all urged me to hurry home and get ready. How I got there is a bit vague, but I ended up back in an apartment, which was apparently my home, trying to figure out what to wear. As I tried on and rejected one outfit after another, I soon realized that it was only a few minutes until the event was to begin. I became more and more frantic, but I continued trying on and rejecting item after item until I finally woke up again!

Each ensuing dream became more vague than the one before, but there was a common theme. In each one, I was going to be late for something. I couldn’t help but wonder if that meant something and so this morning, I googled “the meaning of dreams”. Apparently, according to several sources, dreams of being late represent feelings about having missed an important opportunity. One so-called dream expert suggested that a person ought to respond to these dreams by asking where in your life do you feel that time is running out or what do you need to do before it does. So, I ask myself, were last night’s nocturnal imaginings telling me something of significance or did I simply eat the wrong snack before I went to bed? What, if any, opportunities have I missed?

With another cancer treatment and it’s follow-up scans coming up next week, a night of school dreams probably wouldn’t be too surprising, but the closest I can come to the lost opportunity scenario is the vague feeling that’s been growing within me lately that perhaps I ought to be doing something meaningful with my experiences of the past couple of years. What that might be, I’m not at all sure.

What do you think? Do your dreams have meaning?

School dreams and stress

/ edebock / 12 Comments

For many years, in spite of the fact that I enjoyed my teaching career, I had what I called my “school dreams” in the days leading up to each new school year.  These were dreams in which everything went wrong.  All a teacher’s worst nightmares would visit me as the end of August approached! One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed about retirement has been the absence of these dreams; until recently that is.

Why in the world would I be having school dreams again more than seven years after retiring from the classroom? It happened again last night. This time, I was trying to teach a high school English lesson to a large class of students in a crowded area at the back of a busy hairdressing salon! Yes, my school dreams are like that; a curious mixture of realistic and just plain weird. Midway through the lesson, all but two of the students got up and went upstairs to some sort of student lounge. In spite of my pleading and threatening (definitely not effective teaching strategies), they refused to come down again. Over the years students leaving class and refusing to come back has been a fairly common theme in these dreams.

Teaching is a stressful occupation and during my career, though I anticipated the beginning of each new school year with excitement, I recognized that my strange dreams were a symptom of that stress.

Over the past 14 months, my life has been a series of one stressful event after another. I thought I was coping well but little by little, with each ensuing event, the stress built up until now it’s beginning to bubble over. According to the Holmes and Rahe Life Events Stress Test, which is supposed to give a rough estimate of how stress affects health, events including death of a close family member (Mom), major personal illness (cancer) and major change in health of a family member (Dad) have given me a 50-50 chance of succumbing to stress-related illness. I’m doing my best to combat that by continuing to eat well, exercise regularly and by ensuring that I get enough sleep but it’s absolutely amazing what’s stored away in the deep recesses of our brains. Apparently, mine still connects stress to teaching and  is reacting to my current stress level with school dreams! How weird is that!

Now the challenge is to find ways to reduce the build up of stress and manage it better in the future.

Any suggestions?