Dreams

When is a dream more than just a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep? (definition by Google dictionary)  Are dreams truly random, or fragmented events that have already happened from 1 or more recent events? What about dreaming of the future? Is it merely fantasy, or could it possibly be a divine message sent from above with some deeper meaning and purpose?

I think I dream a little more than the average person. Many of which have nothing to do with reality or things that could ever happen. Some seem very real, yet still never happen, nor have ever happened.  On a few occasions however, I have had dreams come true.  Not EXACTLY like the dream, but the main event of the dream.

While pregnant with Eli, I possibly had a dozen dreams of his birth. Each and every dream resulting in a c-section, after an extremely easy going and short labor. These dreams frustrated me. I prayed so many nights for my dreams to change. I wanted to badly to dream of being able to push him out and be able to hold right away. That dream never came.

On delivery day, the labor was going amazingly well, just like all my dreams! And I heard my OB tell me "you'll be ready to push by early afternoon". It was so awesome to hear that! All those dreams were wrong! But as you know, if you read my previous blog "Elijah", my many dreams of c-section did come true. So when that time came, when my OB told me it would be physically impossible for my body to have a natural birth, it was kinda like having the wind knocked out of me. All those dreams were right! Dang it! lol

Fast forward 13 months, to June 2009. I had one of the most terrifying, heart pounding, traumatic dreams I had ever had. I dreamt I was on a roller coaster, and Eli was too, but I couldn't get to him. The ride was going so fast, up and down and wide curves.  I saw Eli in distress, looking lifeless, foaming at the mouth, having a strange color about his skin...and then he was gone.  I was upset beyond words. I kept looking for him, but never found him. I woke up.

Two days later, after dinner, 13 month old Eli was playing in the livingroom when I saw him fall forward from his sitting position. Really, I didn't think anything of it as toddlers do tend to topple over. But after a short time, he didn't move. Not even a smidgen. His arm was in a funny position too. Didn't that hurt? I go to pick him up, and he's limp. I roll him over so that I'm carrying him and I see his face and I SCREAM bloody murder at the site!!  His face drained of all color, his mouth clinched so tight beyond human strength, yet foaming and drool pouring out, his lips blue, his eyes open and rolled back far so I mostly only see the whites of his eyes. Fast forward thru my horrified screaming and hysterical crying and the ER visit, I learned that what Eli experienced was a febrile seizure. And later recalled the dream I had, eerily similar to what really happened ....minus the roller coaster.  The seizure itself was exactly like in my dream, and just like in my dream, I thought I was losing my baby.  I've had other seizure dreams, but not to this magnitude, and not so accurate. I think the other seizure dreams were manufactured because I have been scared for life from this event, and it will forever be in my subconscious.

Fast forward to April 2013, I have another realistic dream that could very possibly happen. But I didn't think anything of it as I felt it was still a long shot. I dreamt of a severe crash on the highway that happened just before and on a bridge that went over a river. I was driving in my SUV and I didn't see who caused the accident just ahead, or how it could have happened. I tried to dodge and avoid a tragic crash myself when I was not so lucky, and hit another vehicle, and was spinning rapidly out of control over the bridge, when in one of my spins I see I'm going to crash again ...but can't tell if it will be into a pile of cars, or the trees that were just past the bridge.  The viewpoint of my dream changes, like a camera zooming out in a movie scene. I see several vehicles scattered about the the highway, many yards from each other, with about 5 dead bodies and debris from the vehicles strewn everywhere.

The next day after having this dream, I'm driving home in my SUV when just up ahead I see a crash that had just happened.  I was not driving on the highway, but the crash was just before a bridge. It  was not over a river, but over train tracks. While this crash was MUCH easier to avoid than the one in my dream, and on a much smaller scale of severity, I did have to dodge slowly between 2 vehicles and debris strewn all over the road. Again, the main event was very similar to the dream. The crash, the bridge, the debris, driving in my SUV. Hmmm...

So now I wonder... can dreams really be more than just a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep? Are these dreams one huge coincidence, or a private message from God, or some kind of 6th sense, intuition, ability to predict an upcoming event?  Whatever it may be, I have chosen to thank God for these dreams. Although the dream with Eli was terrifying, I took it as God trying to prepare me for what was just ahead.  As for the dream about the crash, and real life crash, I thank God again for our safety on the roads.