Finding Without Seeking

On Monday morning, Husband sent me out to the field to retrieve the heifer herd. It was raining lightly, prompting my decision to tote along an umbrella instead of a camera. Walking beneath the umbrella directed my eyes to focus on the ground. All of a sudden, I spied what appeared to be a piece of wood.......but, it turned out to be this hammer, lost a year ago during hay-baling season.

Husband was ecstatic at the find! Mostly because now there's no chance of this hunk of metal and wood getting caught in a combine or baler or chopper in the future. Such an incident can ruin a farmer's day, or week, or more!!

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My previous post was about our church cemetery..........I went there again this past Sunday afternoon. But, let's back up to early Sunday morning-----as I awakened I was in a vivid dream scene: I was out on our gravel road with a sack of clothes in my hand; I turned to get something from what seemed to be a booth. Then an unfamiliar man walked up to me; he had a pleasant face and we conversed. He told me where he was from.......a town near here which starts with an "H". He mentioned another family name of people he was related to, which was familiar to me.

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Ok, now back to real life: After a Sunday noon dinner of blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs (a favorite meal around this house), I threw my clipboard, notebook, camera, and a sweater in a bag, and drove to the church cemetery to work on documenting more tombstones. There was an out-of-state car parked by the cemetery and I could see a man out amongst the gravestones. I opened the rear hatch door of my vehicle-----(providing a place similar to a booth, like in the dream)-----and took ahold of my a lawn chair and my bag of stuff which included a piece of clothing (a sweater), like in the dream.

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As I entered the tombstone rows, the man turned and headed my way. I said, "Hello! Are you from Illinois?" No, he explained-----his car was a rental; he was from out West, and visiting our area to attend an annual family reunion. He said, "Every year, I try to come out here and visit my mom's grave." So, of course, I asked about his mother. He explained that she had died when he was just three years old, and he retains only a few very brief memories of her. Oh, my......I thought that very sad! He told me his first and last names, the latter beginning with "H", like the town name in the dream. I was familiar with the family name, and mentioned that his elderly aunt is still a member of our church congregation........he smiled big at that. Let me say, too, that this man had a very pleasant face, and I realized right away that he was probably the man from the dream!

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Well, you can laugh and shake your head all you want.......I've had many, many experiences like this with dreams. And, most always it involves dreams that occur right as I'm waking up for the day. Its as if our dreams are like a hawk which perches at a higher place, at a vantage point offering a longer view of the road ahead.......a dream sees further than what my regular eyesight can see. I don't consider dreams like this occultic or fortune-telling, or anything of that nature. For some reason, our dreaming mind can see things that are there, but out of our normal sight and reasoning capabilities.

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In yesterday's post about the hawk, I stated: "Hawk sees many looks away", which is a Native American thought. Dreams were taken very seriously by Native Americans......they were used to find herds to hunt and suitable places for encampments. In other words.......dreams were necessary for physical survival and safety. Of course, a person reading this blogpost might understandably ask: Of what possible use are seemingly trivial dreams that do happen to come true in some way? I don't have a good answer for that........perhaps our residual remnant of dreaming ability simply exists, though nowadays we find very little use for it.

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Anyhow......long opinion, short: I believe God created humans with senses and faculties, including the ability to dream, and the ability to recall dreams. Mostly, these abilities are lost in today's modern world, a world of relatively easy physical survival........AND blaring alarm clocks. I recall few dreams, actually-----mostly just the ones from right before I wake up. (I have the luxury of not waking up to an alarm clock. Husband gets up very early, and I doze for another hour or so, waking up slowly.) The dreams that I do recall with vividness usually end up being connected to out-of-the-ordinary events that will happen soon. I don't dream about regular things in my normal daily routine (or at least such dreams are never recalled): feeding calves, washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking.......BLOGGING, etc. The out-of-the-ordinary event might occur while I'm going about my normal routine, however.

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And, certainly, not every out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in my life is preceded by a seemingly-connected dream......I have no sure idea of what the causative factors are, although emotions might be involved. I read once that events involving highly-charged emotions------(I know, this is very difficult to get the head around)------are like a boulder sitting upstream in the rushing river of time; you may not be able to see the boulder yet, but you can see that the flow of water coming your way has been altered by the boulder being there.......IF you are paying attention.

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One morning a few years ago I dreamed my car got a dent in it, and, indeed, that very day, I was involved in an accident at a busy intersection in Waterloo in which my van received a big dent.......and, NO, I did not do it on purpose; another car pulled out from a stop-sign into my path; the other car was totalled, and the driver ticketed for failure to yield. Another time, I dreamed that a big tank rolled into our neighbor's field, and a couple days later, a cement truck went in the ditch and the tank broke away and rolled into our neighbor's cornfield. A few years ago, in a dream, I saw a guy get out of a tractor and then get run over by an old-fashioned train locomotive.......a couple days later, a farmer from our area was killed in a farm accident; he was a friend and his death was very emotionally upsetting for me. By relating these experiences, I'm trying to show that dreams sometimes operate like a hawk, and can see further down the road of life. I'll bet each one of you reading this post could tell about a dream of yours which came true in some way!

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Dreams are a tool.......a tool almost buried nowadays........like that rusty old hammer.........but, possibly waiting patiently to be found and used again!! And, as with this long-lost hammer, which was discovered without being specifically sought........I believe dreams operate that way, too. You can't will yourself to dream about something specific.

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(After writing a post like this, I always hope that no readers will be totally turned off and never come back! I want you to know, I don't mind a bit if people "pshaw" and disagree with me. I've had to learn to "agree to disagree" with people many times. One of the great things about getting older is caring less and less about what other people think. I was so into that when I was young........I was a meek little thing, afraid to speak up for fear of what other people would think! Plus, everyone's life experiences are different.........leading to the myriad conclusions and opinions that make up our world!! "Walk a mile in my shoes.......", we can ALL say that!!)

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This thought suddenly comes: Perhaps sleep is comparable to the umbrella. The umbrella shields one from the falling rain.........sleep shields one from the sensory stimulations which fill up the state of being awake. The state of sleep shifts the direction of our awareness and focus, as does the umbrella.

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[I'm being annoyed by a head cold right now. Are we supposed to "feed a cold" or "starve a cold"? I've been feeding it.......!]

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