These dreams usually are replicating actual events that occurred earlier in my life. I am being nostalgic and reminiscing about these former times. Typically, I have remade the actual event in my dream. For instance, I am sometimes playing a game of “Marco Polo” not only with my children but also with the buddies I played this game with when a teenager in Van Nuys, California. It is not unusual for my deceased parents to be there to witness my grownup son and daughter dancing with me after arriving at our former home in Gualala.
Envisioning and Creating
As I noted in a previous essay (Bergquist, 2024), I used to fly quite a bit in my adolescent and early adulthood dreams. However, I only flew while living in Sycamore. Apparently, I was “grounded” when we moved to California. I would love soaring around the large trees by our home on Maple St. in Sycamore. I also flew inside our home, soaring around the various downstairs rooms. I wonder if my flying had anything to do with a lovely playful activity in which my father participated. As a very strong man (college wrestler), my father would lie on his back and lift me up and spin me around with wonderful airplane noises. Then he would get up and carry me above his head while raising through all of the downstairs rooms. Was I later (after leaving Sycamore) reenacting and expanding on the flying I was doing with my dad?
While I was no longer flying when we moved to California, I would have dreams in my later life of being creative and expansive while sitting at a table or resting on a lounge table. I recall dreams of my living room in Van Nuys, where our piano was located. I would love to sit under this piano when I was awake. I didn’t play the piano (one year of lessons didn’t stick with me). Later, I would dream of playing the piano, often working on some famous classical composition. I was particularly good in my dreams with the performance of Bach and Chopin. I even played some of my own compositions (which I could never recreate when I was awake).
These Van Nuys dreams often took place when I was going to graduate school in Boston and listening to classical music while working on a school essay. They also occurred later when I was an assistant professor and working on my next-day lecture. An often-stressful daytime requirement of productivity (and some creativity) that was transformed into a nighttime wistful display of musical skills and creativity. When I would wake up from one of these dreams, I was often wistful about not being a great composer rather than a graduate student or young professor.
Later, I had dreams where I am sitting at the window of my home in Berkeley, overlooking the San Francisco Bay or sitting at our dining room table in Gualala, California doing some writing. Often, I replicate a bit of what I dreamt about in Van Nuys. I am producing music rather than words (which is what I do when I am awake). The sounds are flowing out of my pen. Eventually, I am dancing to the music I have proposed. At other times, I am creating new projects while sitting in the loft of my home in Gualala. Lofty ideas are emanating from my loft! I am much more productive and creative in my dream-based homes in Berkeley and Gualala then I have ever been in my “real-life” homes.
Challenge and Bravery
The drive up along the coastline is actually a bit challenging and became even more challenging during my dreams when massive waves are crashing on the cliffs or a sea monster attacks my car as we drive along the cliff. Yet, my wife and I push on. We are willing to risk everything in order to reach our destination. This being our archetypal home on the hill in Gualala. It is at our home/castle that we can look out over the Pacific Ocean, which is now peaceful (pacific).
