You’ve probably heard the phrase, “In your dreams”.  It brings to mind images of unattainable goals and events that probably won’t happen, things we can only dream about.  I also remember several times in my life where someone used those words to knock me down a peg or two or bring me back to reality.

“In your dreams” took on a whole new meaning for me a few nights ago when my dream started feeling more like a nightmare.  The day hadn’t been particularly stressful or exhausting and I got to bed at a reasonable hour, which is unusual for me.  All in all I felt I could go to bed with a clear conscious and a good feeling about my day.  My dreams had other plans.

Dreams are supposedly an extension of your subconscious.  Apparently my subconscious was trying to tell me something this particular night…  My family and I were at a function but I don’t quite remember what we were celebrating.  The party was just ending and we were leaving.  There was a man standing at the dimly lit exit door doling out gifts to everyone.  He seemed familiar but I could not recall why or how I would know him.  The light from the exit shone behind him to reveal his slight build and arms that seemed to be 4 feet long.  Calmly animated, he handed out items from his seemingly bottomless gift bag.  He reached in with his long arms and selected a teddy bear for the girls and an action figure for the boys.  The exit line inched forward with each gift received, until he got to me.  When he saw me, he stood straight up, looked at me with his piercing gray eyes and said, “For you I have something special.”  I was filled with excitement as he searched his deep gift bag for this “something special”.  No teddy bear or action figure for me, my gift was special.  With anticipation I waited until, in his hands, I saw his gift for me.  When I saw the gift, I wasn’t sure how it was “special” because it was just a regular old planner.  As he handed it to me he said, “Maybe now you can get yourself organized.”  Almost like a slap in the face, I realized he was judging me.  But how could he?  After looking over the planner for a few seconds I looked up at the “gift” man and he had a disapproving smirk on his face.  I stumbled back with a gasp and managed to keep myself from falling to the floor.  Was he judging me?!  Then he said, “Maybe you can get it together now.”  As I stood wide eyed in disbelief, my thoughts swirled in my head.  I wanted to say something to him about his rudeness.  He didn’t know anything about me.  How dare he judge me?  The thoughts of what to say or do didn’t come to me fast enough because my eyes opened.  I was awake.

I was so befuddled in those few groggy moments after I woke.  I just lay in bed thinking, “Who was this man and what was he trying to tell me?  What gave him the right to give me a planner as if to say, “Get yourself together woman!”  I really do like a nice planner and would have been excited to receive it as a parting gift but it was the way he gave it to me.   That judgmental smirk on is face!  It burned me up!

Finally I was alert enough to realize I’d been laying there for quite a while trying to figure out that silly dream and what it meant.  I looked at the clock and was already running late getting my day started.  The kids had school that day and were not awake yet.  I still needed to shower.  The dogs hadn’t been let out.  There was breakfast to make and lunches to pack…ugh!

Then it hit me, the tall, lanky gift man was right!  I was a mess some mornings and really needed to get my act together, especially this particular morning.  Maybe he should have been handing me an alarm clock instead of a planner though.  Some mornings are better than others of course but this particular morning my dream was on point.  Although, I do kind of blame the “man in my dreams” for making me wake up all frazzled in the first place.

Lanky Man – 1, Me – 0, but I’ll get him next time!