Most nights I dream. Often, I have multiple dreams and my poor boyfriend hears all about them the next morning. I even downloaded an app to keep a track of them all as they’re usually pretty bizarre; it makes you wonder where in the depths of your brain these mini, night time, movies come from!
A couple of nights ago I had a dream I was in a small living room, watching an old television, you know the glass kind with buttons and knobs. I had sat down to watch a new show people had been telling me about; there was a big hype about it. In waking life I’m not bothered about the TV, but clearly in my sleep, I love it!
I sat on a comfy sofa waiting for it to start and I realised I recognised the people on the TV – they were characters from my novel! But the show wasn’t about them, or my story, it was instead about them being lost.
Aimee and her best friend Leon were stood in a shop, people rushed around them while they stood still and confused. They wanted to be some where, but they weren’t sure how to get there.
There was another woman in the scene who Aimee and Leon were asking for advice. She told them:
“I’m not sure what’s happening, we’re missing someone; someone who knows what’s meant to be happening.”
Watching it on the screen, I sat forward on my chair as excitement filled my chest, “It’s me!” I shouted at the TV. “I’m the one that’s missing! It’s me!” As I shouted, I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was stood in the TV show with them.
I took charge and told them what was going on, where they needed to be, and now I could see beyond the screen I saw other characters too! And the lady who knew someone was missing was now stood back watching us with a smile on her face.
I felt so secure and like I knew what was going on, and then I woke up.
Waking from my dream, I had that suspicious feeling that I had too much sleep, and I was right – I had slept in! I rushed out of bed and went on to have a stressful time at work, and in the chaos, I had half-forgotten about the dream. However, that feeling in my chest, when I shouted “It’s me! I’m missing!” lingered with me all day.
Over the years I’ve become very interested in my dreams and as the little, spiritual person I am, I often reflect on my dreams and attempt to decipher some kind of meaning from them.
The more I have thought about it, the more I agree with the unknown lady in my dream; someone is missing from my characters world, and it is me!
I’ve recently lost touch with what I want to do with my novel, and I have left it on a back burner thinking, ‘I’ll do that at some point. I’ll sort that out another time.’ And I can almost feel my characters laying within the pages looking at each other, much like Aimee and Leon were in the TV show, thinking “Well, what do we do now? We just sit here?”
I like to think I’m a hardworking person, but I think sometimes my work is misplaced in meaningless and thankless work, rather then pouring it into what I love and what I want to do.
Why am I watching the TV and waiting for something to happen, when I can make it happen?
That one random dream has given me so much to think about and has reminded me where I should be placing my hopes and dreams, and that actually, if you want to do something you just have to go do it! It can’t be done without you – you are essential to the process.
You ARE the process.
Gwen Richards 