![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have decided to put this dream in my Dreamwidth blog because of its length, clarity, and character. It was a story my brain wanted to tell and wanted me to remember. I woke myself up from it specifically, deliberately, and realized I needed to spend a few minutes, in the pre-dawn morning just before 6 a.m., committing it to memory so that I could write about it now. It is one of those dreams I occasionally have that makes me think it is, or at least wish it was, more important than just some story my sleeping brain has told me for reasons only it will ever understand. I find I want to re-enter the world, to validate its seeming reality, to figure out the dream story's mysteries. And mysteries there were in it, specifically asking me - the me in the dream situation - to solve them.
It started out with me standing in the hall of an older building that seemed to be a church here in Northwest Georgia, in the present day. I was myself, at the age I am now, although being married did not enter the dream circumstances. I seemed to be on my own, and I stood in this building looking at displays and bulletin boards that held information about the history of this church, or of some members of its congregation. There was an exhibit about a woman whose name started with A - Abigail? - who was no longer alive, had died tragically, in fact, but who had provided an energetic and creative puppet ministry to the children of the church that was still influential there today. The denomination of the church was not certain, but as I began to interact with other people in that church hall, I got a vibe that they were less "holy-roller" but still quite spiritual about their faith. I felt I could talk about weird experiences and the supernatural without it being out of place there. In fact, the people I met and talked with - conversations I don't really remember happening within the confines of this particular dream - seemed to believe I too had a strange spark in me, something they wanted to cultivate and use.
I don't know how it happened, but a way they decided to use me was investigative: A woman who attended - it could have been Abigail but I don't really remember that it was; Abigail had had long, dark hair, and when I envisioned this woman she was older, with bushy, gray hair - had lived alone near there but had died, and there were some mysterious or mystical circumstances they wanted me to use my stranger talents - psychic, intuitive - to help me explore. As in my waking life, I've had very few indications of anything but scientifically explainable abilities, this was surprising to me, but it occurred both to me and the church that I would be able to do this work. They were planning to pay me for it as well. They gave me directions to the woman's house. Next to it would be the house of a man with whom I would be lodging as I conducted my physical and metaphysical explorations.
The woman's house would be located just off of an unpaved road that itself would be just off of GA Highway 53, or a road very similar to it. The general vicinity seemed to be Hamrick road, but there were differences. The area seemed to be between Fairmount and Jasper, though there were minor quirks to that. I dreamed I was driving down the highway when I located the smaller roads - they were tricky to find, I had been warned, but once I found them I would be certain how to get to my destination. I drove over the fine gray gravel of the first unpaved road for just a little while when I saw what must have been the dead woman's house and the house in which I would be a lodger beside it. They were close to each other at the edge of thick forest. I followed the small driveway, which brought my car pretty much up to the door of the woman's house. Immediately, the man who lived, possibly alone but possibly with others, in the house next door came out to greet me. I stared at the woman's house for a while. The sun was shining from behind it and was coming through gaps or holes in its timbers, spaces that gave almost a checkerboard effect to the pale sun - seemed to be morning sun, but I am unsure - shining through it.
The man, who had a slight resemblance to a man I know at Holy Family Church, who has long white hair, a beard, and is short and slight in build, now asked me to come into his house, and, as we entered, he was telling me the ground-rules of my stay. Apparently there was a sophisticated security system in his house, and in my comings and goings I needed to be mindful of it. This became apparent when, once or twice in this part of the dream, I crossed a line where there was a red laser light shining, near the door to a back porch or yard, and it set off an alarm. He was gracious about resetting the system, but I knew that I did not want to keep making work for him.
Then I found myself back at the church, again in the part that had the hallway, which connected to Sunday School rooms. It seemed to be morning, and church members were coming in. As they greeted me, I was chatting with some of them about the new job I appeared to have, the mysteries I was to try to help solve about the woman and her abandoned house with its sunny gaps. I noticed one of the listeners to me was a friend from waking life who is in Calhoun Community Chorus and who is the brother of the Chorus conductor, both of whom attended with me a church in Calhoun when I was growing up, I was waiting for someone from the church office responsible for giving me the work to arrive, so that I could tell them that I would be unavailable on the Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights that I have duties with the Choir at Holy Family. I then walked into a smaller Sunday School room, and suddenly in walked John Carter, my employer at Holy Family. He greeted me amiably and said, "So you decided to come to my church?" I was glad to see him, relieved that the explanation for the time I needed at my other job would be that much simpler.
The dream ended with a strange, almost incongruous part of the story where I was realizing that I would probably be, and wanted to be, in search of another romantic partner. (I know I don't have to apologize to my wife for when my dreams do something like this - but still, Wendy, I'm sorry you weren't in it with me!) I was looking at the people walking to and fro in another somewhat dark hallway of the church building, and looking at one woman in particular to whom I felt attracted. Different shapes and shadows seemed to distort at that point, and soon after that I woke myself up more or less deliberately. The dogs were still sleeping and a morning thundershower had not yet begun, and so I noted that the decision to end the dream was not externally caused.
It started out with me standing in the hall of an older building that seemed to be a church here in Northwest Georgia, in the present day. I was myself, at the age I am now, although being married did not enter the dream circumstances. I seemed to be on my own, and I stood in this building looking at displays and bulletin boards that held information about the history of this church, or of some members of its congregation. There was an exhibit about a woman whose name started with A - Abigail? - who was no longer alive, had died tragically, in fact, but who had provided an energetic and creative puppet ministry to the children of the church that was still influential there today. The denomination of the church was not certain, but as I began to interact with other people in that church hall, I got a vibe that they were less "holy-roller" but still quite spiritual about their faith. I felt I could talk about weird experiences and the supernatural without it being out of place there. In fact, the people I met and talked with - conversations I don't really remember happening within the confines of this particular dream - seemed to believe I too had a strange spark in me, something they wanted to cultivate and use.
I don't know how it happened, but a way they decided to use me was investigative: A woman who attended - it could have been Abigail but I don't really remember that it was; Abigail had had long, dark hair, and when I envisioned this woman she was older, with bushy, gray hair - had lived alone near there but had died, and there were some mysterious or mystical circumstances they wanted me to use my stranger talents - psychic, intuitive - to help me explore. As in my waking life, I've had very few indications of anything but scientifically explainable abilities, this was surprising to me, but it occurred both to me and the church that I would be able to do this work. They were planning to pay me for it as well. They gave me directions to the woman's house. Next to it would be the house of a man with whom I would be lodging as I conducted my physical and metaphysical explorations.
The woman's house would be located just off of an unpaved road that itself would be just off of GA Highway 53, or a road very similar to it. The general vicinity seemed to be Hamrick road, but there were differences. The area seemed to be between Fairmount and Jasper, though there were minor quirks to that. I dreamed I was driving down the highway when I located the smaller roads - they were tricky to find, I had been warned, but once I found them I would be certain how to get to my destination. I drove over the fine gray gravel of the first unpaved road for just a little while when I saw what must have been the dead woman's house and the house in which I would be a lodger beside it. They were close to each other at the edge of thick forest. I followed the small driveway, which brought my car pretty much up to the door of the woman's house. Immediately, the man who lived, possibly alone but possibly with others, in the house next door came out to greet me. I stared at the woman's house for a while. The sun was shining from behind it and was coming through gaps or holes in its timbers, spaces that gave almost a checkerboard effect to the pale sun - seemed to be morning sun, but I am unsure - shining through it.
The man, who had a slight resemblance to a man I know at Holy Family Church, who has long white hair, a beard, and is short and slight in build, now asked me to come into his house, and, as we entered, he was telling me the ground-rules of my stay. Apparently there was a sophisticated security system in his house, and in my comings and goings I needed to be mindful of it. This became apparent when, once or twice in this part of the dream, I crossed a line where there was a red laser light shining, near the door to a back porch or yard, and it set off an alarm. He was gracious about resetting the system, but I knew that I did not want to keep making work for him.
Then I found myself back at the church, again in the part that had the hallway, which connected to Sunday School rooms. It seemed to be morning, and church members were coming in. As they greeted me, I was chatting with some of them about the new job I appeared to have, the mysteries I was to try to help solve about the woman and her abandoned house with its sunny gaps. I noticed one of the listeners to me was a friend from waking life who is in Calhoun Community Chorus and who is the brother of the Chorus conductor, both of whom attended with me a church in Calhoun when I was growing up, I was waiting for someone from the church office responsible for giving me the work to arrive, so that I could tell them that I would be unavailable on the Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights that I have duties with the Choir at Holy Family. I then walked into a smaller Sunday School room, and suddenly in walked John Carter, my employer at Holy Family. He greeted me amiably and said, "So you decided to come to my church?" I was glad to see him, relieved that the explanation for the time I needed at my other job would be that much simpler.
The dream ended with a strange, almost incongruous part of the story where I was realizing that I would probably be, and wanted to be, in search of another romantic partner. (I know I don't have to apologize to my wife for when my dreams do something like this - but still, Wendy, I'm sorry you weren't in it with me!) I was looking at the people walking to and fro in another somewhat dark hallway of the church building, and looking at one woman in particular to whom I felt attracted. Different shapes and shadows seemed to distort at that point, and soon after that I woke myself up more or less deliberately. The dogs were still sleeping and a morning thundershower had not yet begun, and so I noted that the decision to end the dream was not externally caused.
