Bad Dreams

 

I dream every night. I regret to say that my dreams are seldom satisfying. In fact they are often bad dreams. The dominant theme in those bad dreams is golf. I calculate that I I have had more than 500 dreams about me playing golf-and 500 of them have been bad !  Examples: I am at the tee and the fairway is 325 years away, all over a water-filled hazard. Or I am trying to drive off the first tee while confined to the front seat of my car. I have lost my golf bag or clubs in my dreams many, many times. And now something is strange. About a   month ago I planned to write this BLOG about dreams. I have not had a single dream with a golf theme now for  that whole period.

 Night before last I had a dream about a former co-worker. She is Linda Adams, the widow of my former boss, Dr. Thomas Gordon. I dreamt that I went to her office here in Solana Beach, CA. In my dream she showed me that she had developed the open space behind the offices, had planted trees, a fine-looking young man had assisted her. His name was Brad and he encouraged me to  join him in some physical exercises. All in all, a pretty good dream. I told Linda about my surprising dream. Then I was really surprised to hear that, In fact, there were some new offices on the back part of her lot and one of the renters of that property is a gentleman named Brad! (and she has NO intentions of being married to him.).

In high school I learned that many psychologists believe that dreams are the expressions of unrealized or deep fears. If that is true for me those hopes and fears must remain very deeply embedded.

My daughter Elizabeth is a professional therapist. She broke her usual custom of never offering psychological advice to a family member and talked with me about my bad dreams. She urged me to write down my dreams each morning. She suggested that be very careful in what I read or watch on television just before I go to bed. She encouraged that just before I go to sleep I should image beautiful nature scenes in bright technicolor. The few times that I have actually followed  advice I  find that she is right, my dreams are more pleasant. 

So, I have already acted against my better instincts which tell me that no one is interested in another person’s dreams. I hastily close this BLOG with this hope for you: Sweet Dreams!