Last night was a "Frasier" marathon on TV which I really enjoy as I fall asleep. It seems my pattern has returned for 'normal' sleep, and now I probably ruined it by mentioning its return. What some would call a 'jinx', I refer to as sabotage. One of the segments was about Frasier having a recurring dream, a quite weird one, which required Niles and he to pull out their medical and psychiatry manuals to get to the bottom of it. It turned out Frasier was not being 'challenged' enough with his phone callers so his subconscious introduced this 'problem' for him to solve. Makes sense for me. I wonder if solving mine is as 'simple'....
My dream involves church/worship and those of you who know me, and found themselves on the receiving end of a diatribe can likely guess the topic. When I met with Judy and Rachel yesterday, they reported stopping at GS and its grounds to look around, with Judy remembering the church itself being much larger. Being away so long has her picturing it with different eyes. She saw the memorial pictures and such in the classroom building as well. So we talked about that when meeting at the cemetery. Also, my friend, Dolly, attended a wedding in Milwaukee this weekend where her niece married one of the members of the band, Koine. He is the grandson of our former pastor at FG, Norval Kock. As Dolly said, "small world in our Synod"!
So, therefore, my guess for the dream sources is from my cabana dinner, watching late night TV, chatting with Dolly, my visit with Judy and Rachel, plus the plans for the upcoming visit by the young people from Rocky Mountain High School, CO, coming to help with VBS, working with prospects.
In the dream, our first service was concluded and folks were arriving for the next one (we only have one in real life). I was seeing people I had not seen at church in a long time and some I had never seen, coming with a mess of little kids. This service had a different start time as well, which inevitably would mix up some people. My friend, Danny, who works at Wal*Mart (whom I mentioned to Judy yesterday) is no longer a member at GS but came to church in the dream, which was nice. I told the pastor as he was on his way into worship that Danny was there, but was somewhat brusque, as though he did not want to talk to me. Then I went to another room in the same building as the church hall. Hmmm...where am I? We don't have such a set-up, almost an urban setting for the church.
Besides the strangers, old-time, long-time members were coming in, many of them late due to the new start time, and I escorted them in (not as an usher). As I opened the doors to where the service was held, we were greeted with thumping good-time rock 'n roll music, chairs tipped over, and arms flailing in the air-singing. Those long-time members already seated sat with stunned looks on their faces and those being escorted in stopped dead in their tracks. Seated at a table along the front but off to the side was a panel of nicely dressed men, discussing energy options and finance (Fox News had come on this a.m..). Pastor stepped out of the room, and came back in, without his gown on, and was walking around giving a sort of sermon. People had potato chips and sodas (I had had that with my dinner at the cabana).
Filled with disbelief, I was trying madly to dial my phone, or push the buttons as the case might be, to call someone for 'help', knowing that many folks had some family members caught in this mess, but could not access my contacts on the phone. An exercise in frustration, as often happens in a dream. I went outside and was greeted by snowbanks and steep banks to reach my car. The police had closed off the street due to a fire down the block and I feared I would not be able to leave.
As I struggled and slid down the hill and got to my car, a dirty man came up, asking me for something to drink. As I climbed into the car, I explained I had nothing to offer him, which is unusual in my car!, and he became aggressive. Now that I think about it, he might have been involved in some way with the fire, as two more dirty guys came to my car to beg for a drink. A city bus came along and the driver gave me hand-sanitizer to clean the grime from my hands after pushing the guys away. It seems the police, who had been monitoring the traffic, came to my rescue, but I certainly cannot have my hands soiled!
In my mind, being one who reads much into dreams, that hand-sanitizer has great significance after what I had just been witness to...Another characteristic of these early morning, "just before I wake up for good dreams", is that I am left with a feeling of uneasiness, scratching my head and wondering, "What just happened here?????" Time to get ready for church, and I sure don't want to be late---who knows what I might walk into????!!!!!
