POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Big Dreams

By Nandy Ekle

What do you dream about when you sleep? Do you have fantastical visions of pink and purple grasses and talking trees underneath a turquois moon? Or maybe you dream you’re falling and know you must wake up before you hit the bottom. I once dreamed a scary clown was lying on the floor between my bed and the wall. I woke up when my son cried from another room because zombies were chasing him, but I was afraid to get up because I didn’t want the clown to grab my ankle.

The world of psychology tells us that dreams are our subconscious minds sending us messages. While some of these messages are very easy to understand (dreaming of an accident may cause us to be more cautious during the day), most of them are so cryptic we have a hard time decoding them.

If we wake up and can remember some of what our dream was during the night, that might be a clue that we have the makings of a story. I like to write down things I saw during the night, people I might have met, and feelings I might have had. Somewhere in the hazy illogical world of night vision, an interesting subject or character will appear, and you can fill in whatever blanks you might have and come up with a great tale.

Keep a pencil and paper near your bed so you can write down any parts of a dream as soon as your eyes pop open in the morning before it withers away in the sunlight. Keep a dream diary. Find music that brings back some of the feel of what you dreamed. You’ll have a great story beginning.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.