The Top of the Dead Tree

Dreams have always fascinated me. They are so individual, so unique to each person, and such a random part of our brain functions. I understand the science behind dreams, but I think there is a magic to them as well - a connection to that other world from which we are separated. 

I have been curious about dreams my entire life. I have had dreams of flying - and therefore I know what it feels like to glide along free, watching the ground pass by and feeling the wind all around you. I have had dreams in animation. I have had dreams of people I have never met. And, like most, I have recurring dreams and/or themes in my dreams - the two most common are "Disneyland" dreams, and Tornado dreams. When I was little, I would often dream of being in a dark room or dark house and none of the light switches worked. I don't have that dream anymore.

Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to ask other people about their dreams. Many claim that they don't dream and just as many claim they don't remember their dreams. It isn't unusual for one of these people to come to me a short time later and tell me that they suddenly had a dream, or they remembered a dream for the first time. I was most surprised by my mother's response to my dreaming questions. She told me that she dreams in black and white. I had never heard such a thing. I have also heard of people who dream in other languages once they learn or while they are learning a new language. Other types of dreamers are the scattered dreamers who don't have any flow to their dreams, and the practical dreamers - I almost envy them. They work out problems in their head, and the answers are clear as the words written on this page.

I had this dream the night before I started this post. In the dream, it was storming outside. I knew that tornadoes were coming (I dream about tornadoes all the time) and that I needed to get the girls to the safe room. When I looked out of the back door, I saw the dead-ish top of one of my trees go flying up into the air like an arrow launched from a bow. I took a moment to wonder where it would land and hope it wasn't through the roof of someone's house. I then continued to get the girls to safety and then the dream just got wierder and changed to something else.

The next morning, I was driving to work thinking about my dream. I wondered what the significance of the top of the dead tree was. We had just lost a top executive at work and I can't say that I was sorry about it - and I was thinking that maybe that was the metaphor - that executive was the dead top of an otherwise healthy tree...I had pretty much made up my mind that this was it, until at the stop light I looked right out of my driver's side window and saw this: