Sometimes, I find that I can’t remember my way back home (even though my Sycamore home was only half a block away from the Bar). I am running around, scared to death, confused, and feeling very childlike. I usually wake up sweating—and thankful that I am no longer a child and am living in a safe home far away from a menacing Bar.
However, the sinister forces didn’t always remain in Sycamore. They often followed me to California. They were particularly prevalent in dreams when my wife and I were driving up to our home in Gualala. While the highway up to our Gualala home was somewhat treacherous in and of itself, and was sometimes washed out by a heavy rainstorm, the challenge was even greater when the large sea monsters reached up the cliff to snatch our car as we raced along the cliffs. I would borrow from all of the sea monster movies I saw as a petrified but enthralled viewer during my childhood years. My brother and I would find our accustom seats at the State Theater in Sycamore, Illinois, and watch large octopus ensnare cars on the bridge leading into a coastal city or a massive squid attacks a submarine (Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea comes to mind). And now these monsters return to terrify me as an adult dreamer! I must remember to travel on the cliff road in my dreams when the sea monsters are out of season . . .
Yes, I Can Go Home Again
While many of my dreams that incorporate a previous home center on some threat to my life or some discovery of my illegal occupation of this home, I also find that a previous home offers the prospect of pleasant experiences. I can go home again and relive the sense of sanctuary I found in each of the homes in my life.
Safety and Celebration
I find that not all of my dreams about previous homes are anxiety-producing. Many of these dreams, like my daytime fantasies, are quite pleasant. I reenact scenes like that at the end of The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy is once again with her family. I am having dinner with my mother, father, brother and sister at our dining table in Sycamore. I might instead be dancing on a beach with my wife and children.
It is not unusual that this dream segment, portraying safety and celebration, occurs at the end of a dream in which anxiety-provoking events occur. As in the case of The Wizard of Oz, there is a happy ending. Perhaps I am stealing the story line from the Wizard or many other Hollywood productions with endings that make us feel safe and secure, after scaring us to death!
Family, Friendships and Celebrations
I am diving into our California swimming pool with several of my teenage friends. I am playing “Marco Polo” with my own children at our home in Walnut Creek, California. I have driven up the Northern California coastline to our lovely home in Gualala with my wife and precious dog. There are no menacing waves or sea monsters challenging our trip up the coast. Our son and daughter suddenly are there at our Gualala home. We are all dancing around to the music of the Traveling Wilburys or simply feeling energized by the music of Handel or Bach.
