MY PERSONAL DREAM

This blog is about my own personal dream.  It’s a literal snoozle-time event, but it’s also a waking lifelong dream.  I’m publishing it on this blog because there’s a chance you can help me make it come true.

I’ve been pondering it because it’s pretty “wonderful”.  At the risk of being utterly self-serving, I share this dream with you, under the guise that the interpretation might help you with interpreting your own similar dreams:

I’m attending some kind of event at a small exclusive community… attended by people of all ages, although the majority are young people… like college students.   I wander around for a bit looking at store windows, etc.

It starts to rain, which eventually becomes a flood which washes away most of the cars parked along the streets and parking lot.  When the rain stops, I notice that the streets have emptied out… mostly older people remaining now… and some REALLY old.

I walk around some more and notice that there are many book stores in this community.  I stop in front of a book store window and am happily delighted to see my latest historical drama novel being featured… all three in the trilogy series.  I’m absolutely thrilled.  In fact, as I walk to another store window, I note that my trilogy is featured there as well. 

Exclusive communities suggest a gathering of like-minded people.  It can be college students attending the same college; artists hanging out at the same local shopping area; UFO believers attending the same seminar.  You get the gist.  In my dreams, I already know that my exclusive community is for writers/authors/journalists, etc.

Water suggests emotional experience, rain suggests that an emotional event occurs.  For writers, getting rejected for publication is emotional; or when an expert discourages one’s writing efforts.  Inevitably, most would-be writers give up after a “flood” of rejections.

Then I notice that a lot of cars are missing from the streets and parking areas.  I overhear someone say that a lot of cars were washed away during the storm flood.  Concerned, I hurry to where my car is parked and all the cars are gone, including my car.  Now I’m anxious.  I’ve lost my car?  I figure maybe I’ve misremembered where I parked the car.  I start running around to other streets looking for my car.  Nowhere to be found. 

Now… even in the dream I’m aware that losing one’s car is symbolic of a person losing one’s vehicle of progress through life.  It’s equivalent to losing one’s job, one’s marriage, one’s business, etc.   This is why I’m panicked. 

The people in this dream are all writers or wannabe writers.  The fact that a flood washes away the cars suggest that the emotional challenges of being a writer has actually discouraged and chased away a lot of wannabe writers. 

Forlorn, I walk back to the main plaza trying to figure out what to do.  When I get there, I go into the bookstore and check out the display for my trilogy.  It’s routine… just so exciting that it’s being displayed at all!  I decide to check out what’s new in the Sci-Fi shelves (my favorite genre) and when I’m browsing, a man comes up behind me and says, “This is yours.”  He hands me a packet of money… at least 4 or 5 inches thick.  I tell him I haven’t lost money.  I’ve lost a car!  He smiles and tells me the packet belongs to me.  I figure – OK, I can use it – so I take it.

Then I exit the store and as I walk up the sidewalk, I notice my sister’s car parked in an exclusive “store” parking area, facing outwards for an easy exit to the main thoroughfare.  Then I remember I have been using my sister’s car for the past few years because mine is less trustworthy.  I am relieved.  Hooray, my car wasn’t flooded away after all.  I was just looking for the wrong one!

So that’s the dream!  It seems self-explanatory, but, gosh, do I dare believe that this is a precognitive dream?  Something that will actually happen? 

As background, I wrote BLACK CLOUDS IN MANILA to memorialize all the stories my parents and older sibs told me about how they survived World War II in the Philippines.  Their stories were fascinating and mind-boggling.  It’s taken me years and years, and finally I wrote, completed and now published that book… the trilogy displayed in this dream’s book store.  As an aside, my sister Nem – whose car I’ve been using – was crucial to the writing of this book.  She was my content editor, as well as one of the most supportive of my sidelines fans.

A WEEK AFTER THIS DREAM, my daughter Arielle (who sets up the books for publication with Amazon.com) informed me that the books were now published and available for purchase.  WOW!  Talk about timing.

I’ve fictionalized the whole story, of course, because I wasn’t there to witness events so I had to use my imagination for the scenes, but many of the scenes really happened.  Please buy and read the books and then tell everyone you know about it.  I really think you’ll enjoy it.  For more info, check out the book website at http://blackcloudsinmanila.com/.

I wish you all happy dreams as you snoozle through all your nights.