The Two Of Us, We Dream Like One

Don't be fooled by the title. It comes from a Yellowcard song called Inside Out and I only wanted to use the "dream" part of that line for this post. The other night following soccer I had a dream when I went to sleep that went a little something like this:

I had a mission dream. I had these a lot upon returning home from the mission and now they come up occassionally. In times past, the feelings surrounding serving another mission in these dreams are usually about what a huge inconvenience to me it would be and I'm feeling very reluctant to go back out again. And it has to do with varying reasons - I'm afraid I don't remember the language anymore, have to disrupt school, feels burdensome when I wasn't anticipating serving another one so one, etc. This was the first time that I accepted the call and was grateful to go. Maybe that's a transition point for me in my own personal spiritual development, maybe not. Who really knows unless it actually happens, right? This time around I have the same mission president as I did before. Making a cameo was a girl from high school that I'm not sure I even had one conversation with in my entire life, Amy Anderson. I think Dave knew her alright. I'm pretty sure she only came up because I'm dating an Amy. Anyway...what was most vivid was the part about having to ride a really tall, probably about 25' or so, bicycle. I'm struggling with making it turn and basically not topple over because the base is basically very slim and I feel top heavy trying to control and balance and all that stuff.

The tall bicycle has been a theme in several of my dreams over the last year, maybe more. Courtesy of Dream Moods, I get this interpretation from them:

To dream that you are riding a bicycle, signifies your desires to attain a balance in your life. You need to balance work and pleasure in order to succeed in your current undertakings. If you have difficulties riding the bicycle, then it suggests that you are experiencing anxieties about making it on your own. To see a bicycle in your dream, indicates that you need to devote time to leisurely pursuits and recreation.

This was the first time that I had ever read one of those interpretations and actually thought to myself, "wow, I think that could actually apply." There have been a few times when a dream actually revealed a lot to me about my subconscious cognitions. One even felt like revelation because it regarded a question that I had been praying about for some time. Back to this dream though...I just thought it was really interesting. Also, I just think that it's funny that my brain would think of such an elaborate metaphor to illustrate subconsciously in a dream what I'm feeling consciously when I'm awake. I think that the above quote captures pretty well what I'm feeling, but I think it's also coupled with concerns about school, work, my mom, etc.

Do you have any recurring themes in your dreams? I know readership has been down lately, but if you do drop by please share whatever things you've had recurring in your dreams in the comments link. This one is relatively new for me. I used to have dreams about falling a lot. Teeth falling apart was another. That's all I can think of right now.

The painting pictured above is Dali's Persistence of Memory. It's one of the signature pieces of the surrealist movement. It is on display right now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until January 6th. Let's go see it. I included it with this post because I remember my humanities professor at BYU talking about one of Dali's methods of deriving the unusual imagery that he portrays. While falling asleep he would hold a fork in his hand hanging off whatever he was laying on and when the fork fell out of his hand it would land on a plate that he placed below so that the sound wake him up. Then he would paint those images that came to him while transitioning from wakefulness to sleep (is that a word?). Makes sense when you look at his work.