Heat Wave & Dreams

Hey......good news......you can cease your concern and sympathy about our extreme cold weather. It has fled the scene. The proof is in the thermometer.......the temps are in the 20's ABOVE zero today. Hallelujah! (The wind has picked up quite a bit this afternoon, however.)

To celebrate, I trekked on foot to the mailbox this morning (almost a 1/2-mile round trip), and, wow, did it ever feel good to do that!

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I'm going to sneak this little story in right here: My husband took a leap in awareness yesterday......he had a seemingly precognitive dream experience. Three mornings ago he told me about a dream of the night before in which he was at a funeral home where a Catholic wake was taking place.......he recognized several couples, old friends of ours from high school days and beyond, all of them from the rural Catholic community south of Dunkerton.

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After he told me the dream, I had the fleeting thought, "Who is going to die, I wonder?"

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Yesterday morning, I opened up my emails and there was one from a lifelong friend informing me that the father of one of our mutual friends had passed away. The deceased's son and my husband were close friends in high school, both being dairy farm boys. At the friend's wedding, 29 years ago, Husband was the best man and I was the vocal soloist. This friend and his wife were in Husband's dream, and yes, they are Catholic, and we will soon be attending the visitation at the funeral home......God willing.

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We were not aware that our friend's father was seriously ill, though he had had boughts with cancer in the past, and had Parkinson's Disease. The last time we saw him was maybe 9 months ago; he was cheery and full of life then.

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My most vivid memory of the deceased is from 29 years ago when he and I were dancing together at his son's wedding reception. At that time, he would have been about the age I am now---50 years old---while I would have been 22 and married for only 2 years, and newly pregnant with our first child. As we danced, he said to me, "If you can make it to 15 years of marriage, then its clear sailing after that." He didn't elaborate, but I have never forgotten him saying that. Its one of those crystal clear, frozen-in-time memories.

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Another recollection of him---and his wife---is that they suffered the profound loss of two children in a drowning accident back in the early 1960's. Their church was having a summer picnic at a park next to the Wapsipinicon River. Kids were wading in the river, and their 10-year-old son stepped into a deep spot and was caught by the undercurrent.......his 12-year-old sister was nearby and tried to help him and was pulled underwater also. Their names were Michael and Patricia.

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Our friend was the younger brother of these two who drowned......he was around four years old when it happened. He's told us that mostly what he recalls is that he used to sleep in the same bed as his older brother Michael, and then suddenly he didn't anymore.

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I just remembered this......and had thought of it one morning last week for some reason while I was making a bed. Twenty-one years ago, the deceased's son had had a precognitive dream about me. Husband and I had two kids at the time. We met him and his wife for a picnic in New Hampton, during which he proceeded to tell us that he had just had a dream in which he saw me riding on a float in a parade and I was big and pregnant. Well, on that day of the picnic.......I didn't think I was pregnant, but within a couple weeks, found out that I was!

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Precognitive dreams and thoughts about people we have connections with is a natural part of life......I fully believe that. It occurs only occasionally, but when it does, it is definitely memorable.

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Sorting Silverware

Sorry, the title of this post and the photos in it are not connected at all; the text will soon be relevant to the title. The pictures were snapped after the funeral lunch on Wednesday.......as I continued on to Waverly to get groceries.

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Despite the cold, these horses seemed to appreciate being out in the New Year's Eve day sunshine as they munched their hay:

A few windows in downtown Waverly appeared a bit on the distorted side. Maybe it was my eyes playing tricks.......or, it was one window playing a trick on another. It could be that windows like to have fun on occasion, too.

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Towards the end of the funeral lunch clean-up on Wednesday, after picking up plates and coffeepots, and helping put chairs away, I ended up sorting silverware in the kitchen. There is a set of tableware that belongs in the church basement, one used by the dayschool, and another set in the parish hall. All the sets must be used during large gatherings such as funeral lunches, and, of course, they must afterwards be sorted back into their proper containers.
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While doing that, my mind spiraled back a few years to another funeral lunch.......I had been drying clean silverware and handing it over to another lady for sorting. She had been at that task for quite awhile and at one point I jokingly said to her, "You've been staring at silverware so long that you'll probably see silverware in your sleep tonight." Instead of smiling or chuckling, she responded with almost a groan and said, "Oh, I hope that's ALL I see......I've been seeing terrible things in my dreams lately."
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About six weeks after this incident, the woman passed away following heart surgery, and two weeks after her passing, her son died in a farm accident. The events left me inwardly stunned, considering what she had said about her dreams.
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Here's another scene from an alley in downtown Waverly. Don't fret, I wasn't lurking in the alley just to take photos; I was parked there to run an errand.

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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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Spiderwort

On display right now in our road ditch for the viewing pleasure of passers-by.........

SPIDERWORT!!

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The following info about "Spiderwort" is from the book Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie of the Upper Midwest, by Sylvan T. Runkel and Dean M. Roosa, published by Iowa State University Press (1989):

------Other common names for Spiderwort: Blue Jackets, COW SLOBBERS!, Job's Tears, Widow Tears

------Scientific name: tradescantia ohiensis (The name "tradescantia" was given in honor of John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I, King of England in the early 17th century. "Ohiensis" means "or or from Ohio".)

------The flowers tend to open in the morning. When touched in the heat of the day, they shrivel to a fluid jelly that trickles like a tear.

------The plant was once thought to be a cure for spider bites.

------It is used in biology classes to study the movement of protoplasm in the hairs in the center of the flower.

------Flower color changes when exposed to nuclear or radioactive radiation.

------Melvin Gilmore wrote, in his book, Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region: "When a young Dakota brave is in love and when walking alone in the prairie and finding this flower in bloom, he sings a song to it in which he endows it with his sweetheart's characteristics and beauty." Part of the song may be translated as:

Wee little dewy flower

So blessed and so shy

You're dear to me, and

For my love for thee, I'd die

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I really like the name "Cow Slobbers"!! I must remember to tell Husband about that alternate name for Spiderwort!!

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The following story is not related to Spiderwort, but happened just last Sunday. Its involves a dream and a car accident, so if that will bother or annoy you, you'd better surf somewhere else.

Sunday morning, right as I was waking up, I was in dream scene.........first I was at a business establishment in our nearby town, gazing at the grain elevator across the street. Then I was in the shed below the tall grain elevator, and I was standing next to a person on a gurney, and the person's head was encased in what appeared to be a block of cement. [Update - 5:00 p.m., 6/25/08: I decided to look up the meaning of the injured boy's first name.......it is "solid, enduring"........(like cement??!] I was with the person to give them comfort during this ordeal they were going through, and I was saying to someone, "This must be like a torture chamber for this person......to have their head all covered up like that."

Back to reality.......I filed the dream scene away in my mind and went about the usual Sunday activities. Around 6 p.m., one of my daughter's friends phoned to say that another good friend of theirs had just been in a serious car accident near here, and had to be cut from his car with the Jaws of Life, and airlifted to the hospital. We had no idea what sort of injuries he sustained......one always worries about the head and neck, though.

My daughter was at her job, but someone notified her there, and she went straightaway to the hospital. Later that night, she phoned home with details about the accident. The injured boy had apparently fallen asleep while driving home from a friend's house (this friend's family owns the business establishment in the beginning of the dream), went into the ditch and hit a culvert. The front half of the car ended up perpendicular down to the ground, pinning the boy's ankles. Probably he survived the crash because he had his seatbelt on and the airbag deployed. The steering wheel was pushed into the dash......the boy's face has many cuts and bruises, a broken nose and teeth......and, in fact, he's been pulling pieces of steering wheel material out from between his teeth! Also, just two weeks ago, he had junked his old, compact car (with no air bag) and bought this larger, newer vehicle!

At the scene, he was put in a neck brace, his badly broken ankles were stabilized, and he was loaded onto the helicopter (a type of "elevator", if you will). Both ankles were crushed, with one being an open fracture. He's fortunate his feet weren't just cut right off. One ankle was operated on on Sunday night, and the other on Monday. Both ankles have multiple plates, pins, and screws in them.

My daughter was with him all day Monday, too. They aren't going together, but they were very good friends all through high school, and were prom dates one year.

Anyway........if you have a few seconds, just breath a quick prayer for his recovery, which will be a long one. Much patience and good humor will be needed. My impression of this boy has always been that he's exceptionally good-natured and cheerful, and my daughter states that he's been true to form so far in the midst of this unfortunate ordeal, even cracking jokes as he was being loaded onto the helicopter, according to witnesses.

This boy was a standout cross-country and track runner in high school, and had just finished a successful first year of college running. It appears God may have other plans for him.

When I told my daughter about the dream, she told me that another friend (the one who had called me about the accident) had dreamed about a car wreck that morning, too.

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[Update - 6/26/08: The boy who had the car accident didn't fall asleep while driving......his front driver's side tire blew out, causing his car to veer across the oncoming lane and into the ditch.]

Stubble, Toil & Trouble

****Stubble, Stubble, Toil, and Trouble!****

During a snowy winter, cornfields resemble pale skin covered with bristly whisker stubble, the remnants of cornstalks which remain rooted in the ground after harvest. This photo is way too pink, but the color helps remind me that spring and summer flowers will be here eventually.

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In my Six-on-Six post of two days ago, I mentioned my junior varsity basketball coach who was also our English teacher. In her sophomore English class we read "Antigone", "Romeo & Juliet", "Our Town", "Twelve Angry Men".......and "MacBeth".

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"Double, double, toil, and trouble.....", of course, was a phrase repeated by the three witches in MacBeth. I don't remember much else about this Shakespeare play, except for two clever aspects of it that our teacher emphasized. Both had to do with prophecies that the witches spoke concerning MacBeth himself:

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"....laugh to scorn the power of man,

for none of woman born shall harm MacBeth."

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"MacBeth shall never vanquish'd be until

Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill

Shall come against him."

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In this tale, MacBeth was content in believing his view of what these prophecies were referring to, and felt safely out of harm's way. Of course, later on, into MacBeth's life did come harm.......via a man not of woman born....... and after Great Birnam wood came to high Dunsinane hill! One scenario existed already, and the other came to pass, in a way that MacBeth did not expect. And yet it had been right there, all the time, accurately, in the weird sisters' forecast.

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Anyway, our teacher emphasized these clever elements of Shakespeare's plot. I haven't thought about the story for years, but it came to mind the other day when I was writing that basketball post.

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As far as TV goes, I watch very little.......a few shows on PBS, occasionally Law & Order (the original and C.I.), and Medium. Monday's episode of the latter show was a good one. I especially enjoyed the subplot involving the middle daughter, Bridget. Bridget's earnest concern for a stranger was refreshing.

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While her parents were busy one day, Bridget had answered the phone and talked with a credit card representative for several minutes. That night, she had a dream that this credit card employee's house was going to be broken into. Bridget was very worried about this and matter-of-factly asked her dad to please call the credit card company and tell this man to lock his back door! Joe, her dad, tried to tell Bridget that it would be futile to attempt to find this man, because the credit card company has thousands of employees. But, Bridget did know the man's name; she had found that out during their phone conversation. Joe eventually did give in and called the credit card company and they tracked down the employee and found he lived in India, working as a phone representative for their company. They did get ahold of the man.......and then, as is my habit usually from about 9:30 to 9:45 p.m. during the show, I dozed off.......when I awoke, the man was calling to thank Joe and Bridget for helping him.

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Anyway......why am I talking about this fictional,trivial TV show? Its because I believe that things like this can and do happen. Its not eerie and spooky and unbelievable......it is a real possibility. We live our lives too much like MacBeth and not enough like Bridget......we don't see the truth of what's there and what is possible. We fail to look closely, deeply, and see the possibilities. There are caring connections between people, and those connections are forged and accessed, not only in concrete ways that we are accustomed to, but also in other seemingly mysterious ways that we're just beginning to recognize. To quote the cow in the movie "Babe": "The fact is, the way things are is the way things are."

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I hope today brings you.......easy toil and little trouble!!!!

Dream of the Day

Sorry, I have to tell this little dream incident that just happened. Last night, as I was settling in to go to sleep, I reminded myself to tell my son in the morning to please wear a shirt and tie to church, since we would be having Communion and he would probably be an usher.

When my son got up this morning, the first thing he said to me was, "Mom....Grandpa was in my dream last night." I said, "Cool.....tell me about it."

(Grandpa is my father-in-law, who passed away last November.) My son said that in the dream he and Grandpa were in a vehicle and Grandpa gave him a box of items. The items were dress shirts and ties!!!! (My father-in-law did used to encourage dressing well for church.)

I told my son that I had been planning to tell him to wear a shirt and tie to church today, and evidently, Grandpa would want him to dress that way, too!!!

Anyone can say whatever they want about incidents like this......but, to me they indicate some possibilities.........that thoughts travel.....OR.....that our loved ones remain around us somehow in spirit, and they communicate with us in unusual and unorthodox ways. Its not spooky.......no, its just the way things are!

Cement Truck Accident

Shall we allow our thoughts meander to a season other than winter.......how about autumn? The photo below was taken on the day of this post. Back then, I couldn't upload photos due to a super slow dial-up connection.

The vantage point of this scene is a little roadside park high on a hill overlooking the tiny town of Eldorado, Iowa. "Eldorado" means a gilded place of great wealth. I doubt this village in Iowa contains a stash of gold, but on the day of this photo, this Eldorado was surrounded by GOLDEN corn fields! The sumac patch across the road provided a wealth of lovely deep red color, also.

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Yesterday morning brought an odd dream as I was waking up. In it, a family gathering was going on. One of my sister-in-laws was stirring a roaster full of multi-colored beans. Her back was covered with what appeared to be shredded mozzarella cheese. I was grabbing handfuls of the cheese and tossing it into the roaster of beans. (?????)

I told Husband about the dream when I got to the barn. (He just LOVES hearing about my weird dreams. He's long-suffering and tolerant, poor guy.) Anyway, last evening we received an email saying that another one of our sister-in-laws has a medical problem and will be flying to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on Monday. Its the first we've heard of this, so we have no idea what her medical problem is.

Sometimes, I think the purpose of dreams such as the one above is to sound an alert that someone needs prayer. The dream directed my attention to a sister-in-law......otherwise, they had not been on my mind lately.

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The following dream story happened in late summer of 2005: One morning, as I was waking up, a strange dream scene came and went. In it, a thing which looked like a watertower tank was flying low over our field by the road. The tank then landed across the road, in our neighbor's cornfield.

Again, on this morning, I happened to tell Husband about the dream, once I got to the barn. The following day, Husband, one of our sons, and my stepdad were up on the roof of our house, putting new shingles on. Suddenly, Husband hollered for me to bring the binoculars to him.......he said two police cars had just speeded by on our gravel road. (We live 1/4 mile off of it.) From up there on the roof Husband could see commotion on the road over by our neighbor's place. Pretty soon we heard and saw an ambulance go wailing by. Husband kept watching, and eventually said that it appeared a cement truck had gone into the ditch and overturned. Husband could see that the cement mixer's tank had rolled into our neighbor's cornfield! He looked down at me from the roof and said quietly, "Your dream." I hadn't even thought of that yet.

It turned out that the cement truck driver had lost control on loose gravel; he probably had been driving a bit too fast. Our neighbors rushed to the overturned truck's cab and found the driver conscious, but with his arm was pinned. It took the emergency workers 1-1/2 hours to extricate him from the cab! He had a badly broken arm and broken ribs, but no injuries that were life-threatening.

The only reason I'm telling this story is because it all happened. I have no idea how a precognitive dream can take place; I only know that it does happen occasionally. I've had to learn to put aside the idea that these types of dreams are odd or something to be feared. They are simply a normal life experience, albeit an intriguing, interesting one! As I said earlier, perhaps dreams like this are a heads-up alert for us to get busy and pray, even if the info is vague on who to pray for.

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If someone shows up in your dream tonight.......say a prayer for them when you wake up!!!

Trip to Colorado

(2/25/08: Sad news.....I think my camera has given up the ghost. But, let's move one to infinitely better news.....My son is engaged! A late summer wedding is being planned!)

Back in the summer of 2005, the above-mentioned son was on an electrical engineering internship out in Colorado. Dairy families don't do much travelling, but this opportunity to visit someone in Colorado was too tempting, so my older daughter and younger son and I made plans for a trip west.

That summer, here at home, we were starting a building project on our house, as you can see in the above photo. This was the phase it was at around the time of our trip, with the basement foundation blocks having just been set in place. You can see there is a trench surrounding the cement block walls. To reach the door to the main level of our house, we had to walk carefully across a plank over the trench.

Three days before we were to depart for Colorado, my younger son got up in the morning and told me about a dream he had just had. In the dream, he had fallen in our new basement area and injured his knee and had to wear a knee brace. I said, "Well, just be careful today, then, so that doesn't happen."

At some point during the day, I was sorting through a stack of magazines to get rid of, and found an ATV sales booklet with some nice, glossy photos of ATV's, and I set it aside to give to Husband's young nephew, Brett, the next time he came here. It turned out that Brett's family did stop in for a short visit that evening. They wanted to see how the house project was coming along. As they were getting into their vehicle to leave, I suddenly remembered about the ATV magazine, and I ran back to the house to get it, stepping carefully on the plank leading to the door.

Who knows how a person's memory can suddenly revert to complete forgetfulness......I grabbed the magazine off the kitchen counter and ran back out the door......evidently forgetting completely about the plank and the trench. Straight down I fell, into the trench, hitting my left knee on the way down on an edge of sidewalk cement jutting out over the trench.

Oh, man, it hurt! I stood there for a bit, grimacing and trying not to cry. Finally, I sidled my way around the foundation until I found a place to climb out. It was right at that moment that I remembered my son's dream.......the "Be Careful" message had been for ME!!

I could walk, but the knee really hurt, and it was already stiffening. I brushed the dirt off the ATV magazine, walked slowly over and gave it to Brett. They hadn't seen me fall, so I waited until after they drove away, then I told Husband about my fall......and always I feel so stupid when that happens......I imagine he'll think I'm making it up. I showed him my knee......(and you know we all have been guilty of saying this to someone)......instinctively, the first thing he said was, "What did you do that for??!" "@#$%#%^&" was what I felt like replying with, but I didn't!

That night, I iced the knee before trying to get into bed. It was impossible to find a pain-free position, and through my head were racing thoughts like, "What am I going to do about the trip?" I was so looking forward to seeing my son and spending time in the beauty of the mountains. All of our reservations for hotels and a trail ride had been made, and tickets had been purchased for a Rockies baseball game in Denver on July 4. We simply had to go.

The next day I phoned my daughter for her opinion on my injury.......she is a coach and has taken athletic training classes. I told her I hit the knee straight on.....there had been no twisting or side hit, so I believed there was no injury to the ACL. She said, too, it probably was not an ACL or MCL injury, thank goodness. I also talked to my pastor's wife at the time, for she also had athletic training experience. She told me that as long as my knee did not feel like it was going to give out as I walked, then it probably was not a ligament injury. So I had two opinions I trusted......there was no time to go to the doctor for it was a weekend.

My gait was ridiculous; I couldn't bend my knee at all. I felt like Chester from the old "Gunsmoke" TV show! The day before the trip, I bought a velcro knee wrap to wear, and decided that I would go to Colorado, bum knee and all. I could still take my turn at driving, for my right leg was fine. What I would have to forego on the trip would be the hiking and the trail-ride we had reservations for.

We left early in the morning on June 30, and arrived in Boulder, Colorado in late afternoon. The next day we were allowed to take a tour at the site of my son's internship, shown in the photo below:

We rode an elevator up inside a wind turbine tower and stood on top of the nacell, which is the box-like thing the blades are attached to. It was quite a dizzying place to be........it was a relief to finally get back down to the ground!These are the only two photos that would load onto this post. (The others wouldn't upload.....just a gray box was there.???)

The photo below shows the site where the various models of wind turbines are set up and studied. A steady supply of strong wind blows down from the mountains through that canyon in the distance, which is why the Wind Technology Center was built here, several miles south of Boulder, on the way to Golden. The mountains look so unreal! Way in the distance (you can hardly see them) are the high peaks of the Rocky Mountain National Park area, where we would be headed the next day.

That evening, while everyone else hiked on the Flatirons west of Boulder, I drove up a mountainside and enjoyed some spectacular views of Boulder and the surrounding area to the east. The next morning, we left Boulder and headed north and west toward Estes Park. It was 85 degrees when we left Boulder.......by the time we reached the Alpine Visitors' Center way up in Rocky Mountain National Park, it was 35 degrees!

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Trail Ridge Road takes drivers through the park, winding back and forth, higher and higher. We stopped wherever there was an overlook, to absorb the gorgeous scenery and feel the crisp mountain air. Sweaters and long pants were dug out of the trunk, and soon we were stopping at snow fields to take photos. At the Visitor's Center, I hobbled in and browsed in the gift shop, while the others climbed a long stairway trail up above the Center. A silver ring with a black diamond heart caught my eye, so I bought it, and wear it everytime I dress up, to remind me of this wonderful memory of being in the mountains!

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We drove back down Trail Ridge Road the way we came up, and found the road to Bear Lake. We walked the trail around this lovely upland lake, enjoying the various snowy mountain peaks which framed the lake from a distance.....Longs Peak and Hallett Peak being two of them.

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That night, we stayed at the Wildwood Inn resort near Estes Park......not far from the tumbling, rushing Fall River. Several weeks before, by a serendipitous online blessing, I had found this one night available at this resort.....usually they book their cabins a full week at a time. We enjoyed dinner that evening in the back room of a tiny Italian restaurant in Estes Park.

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The next day's schedule included the trail-ride. Everyone (except me) saddled up at the "Cowpoke Corner Corral", a few miles outside of Estes Park. When I went into the office to register, the owner laughed when she saw we were from Iowa. She said the horses are from Iowa, too, and are taken back to Manchester every year for the winter!! Pretty cool, we thought!

The tenderfeet horseriders in the above photo enjoyed a memorable afternoon of trail-riding. They had a great time! While they ambled along the wooded and scenic trails, I drove back to Estes Park and browsed in the tourist shops. I bought t-shirts for everyone and several colorful quartzite rocks which now reside on our fireplace mantle. As I was making my way through the crowds along the street, I felt a change in my sore knee.......like it had reached a turning point, and from then on it started feeling better and I could walk more normally! I sometimes wonder if the knee injury was meant to happen for some reason......it seems I was not supposed to hike or ride a horse on this trip!! Maybe the knee injury spared me from some worse injury.....who knows.

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In a happy, tired state, we left Estes Park and drove back to Boulder that evening. The next day, we ventured into Denver and spent time at the Zoo and were in attendance that evening for a Colorado Rockies baseball game. That was on the Fourth of July, and following the game the fans in the stadium were treated to a fantastic fireworks display! Unfortunately, my photo of the fireworks atop the big neon ROCKIES sign would not upload.

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The next day we left early from Boulder and headed back to Iowa, arriving safely at home late in the evening. It had been a whirlwind trip, blessed with traveling mercies and amazing scenery, providing for marvelous memories of Colorado! I just love the mountains!!! (You know......I don't know why we don't go to the Colorado high country more often, considering it takes only one day of driving to get there!)

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Any of you been to the Rocky Mountains? What is your favorite memory there?

Wake-up Dream

Five years ago today the following events took place. I can't prove that it happened, but I don't write fiction on this blog. I have no explanation for what happened, but here it is:

Similar to the photo above, it was in the early morning, when the light of a new day was breaking over the horizon. If you're lucky, like me, you wake up without the jarring insistence of an alarm clock, and you are sometimes aware of the world between sleep and full awake-ness.

Well, I think I was in that state when this experience happened. It could be called a dream, but it seemed of a different quality. I suddenly found myself walking arm in arm with an older woman. I couldn't see her face, but she had gray curly hair, and was wearing a red print dress and a necklace of odd-shaped red and black beads. We were struggling to make our way up a steep, slippery incline, at the top of which was an open doorway. Two or three times we almost made it to the top, but then slipped back down. Finally, we were able to reach the doorway, and I got a brief glimpse of the view beyond. It was a beautiful, glowing green meadow of flowers, grass, and trees. It looked pleasant, warm, and inviting. My glimpse was very brief, for as we reached the top, the inclined walkway we were on began to pitch forward like a teeter-totter would, and as we fell, I woke up.

Honestly, I had never had a dream anything like this one before. I usually didn't have much dream recall; they vanished upon my awakening. So I pondered this one all that morning, wondering what in the world it meant, if anything.

In the afternoon, we received a phone call from Husband's uncle. He informed us that his mother, Husband's grandmother, had died earlier in the day, alone in her home, about 20 miles from us. Although she was elderly, she hadn't been ill, so her death was unexpected.

Wow, I was completely stunned! I started to tell my family about the dream, but they looked at me like I was insane, so I shut my mouth.

As I listened to the details of Grandma's death, it seemed that it had occurred around the time of my dream or whatever it was.

I don't know what it was. Maybe it was her spirit telling me good-bye, or perhaps as she was dying, Grandma thought of her loved ones, and somehow her thoughts travelled and I was in a mindstate to receive them. Grandma and I had been pretty good friends. We had enjoyed many long talks, and had a bond.......she would call me every few weeks to come and trim her toenails, since she couldn't reach her feet anymore. She'd be there sitting in a chair, waiting for me with her feet soaking in a pan of warm water.

Some people view these kinds of stories with suspicion, and some people don't. If you don't care for this sort of thing, then surf away. This dream was like a wake-up call to me in a way......I almost divide my life into B.D. and A.D., "before the dream" and "after the dream". Since it happened, I pay attention to dreams, and keep a journal of them. Sometimes, they teach you about yourself, and occasionally, they teach you about someone else.

Probably there are lots of people out there who have had a similar experience. I wish that anyone who did could feel free to discuss such things. Sometimes, in our culture, it is difficult.

The Subject of Coincidence

I wasn't intending to blog on the subject of coincidence today, but it seems to be willing itself into being. Maybe because I read a chapter from The Three "Only" Things last evening.

This morning upon awakening, I could recall two brief dream scenes from during the night. In one, I was talking to an acquaintance. I had no awareness of what we were talking about, but I kept wishing I could think of his wife's first name, but just could not. In the second scene, I was saying repeatedly to someone, "Where is Beaver Lake?" I'm not familiar with any place by that name.

Anyway, while I was out doing calf chores this morning, I had to walk out to the burn pile. This took me by a pen of older calves, which I rarely pay any attention to. I happened to glance at their pen and just one calf was looking right at me with her nametag visible. The name on her tag was "Ellen"........and I realized right away that was the name of the man's wife in my dream last night. The name I couldn't think of while in the dream!

We'll see if anything comes of "Beaver Lake"! I'm not holding my breath.

When I opened my email this morning, there was one from an old friend who lives in Kentucky. She emails me very rarely. The title of her email was "You Can't Make This Stuff Up". It included a link to a news story about the recent tragic death of a policeman and his police dog in Kentucky. The dog had his own casket, and was buried in the cemetery next to his owner. My friend found this interesting not only because of the unusual story, but also because when she was here in Iowa over Christmas, we had discussed a recent funeral in our community, also involving a dog in a casket! A tragic accident had taken the lives of a young married couple. Shortly before that their dog had been diagnosed with leukemia, so the couple's family had the dog euthanized, and he lay at the feet of his mistress, in her casket! We had quite a discussion about this at our Christmas get-together, and in her email, my friend wrote that it seemed "bizarre" that a similar incident so quickly came to her attention.

Actually, I've never brought up the subject of coincidence with any of my friends, or with anyone at all, for that matter. Its so difficult to explain that one feels nutty trying to do so, which is why I'm appreciating the book The Three "Only" Things. The author does a good job of clearly describing coincidence, synchronicity, serendipity, and their connection to dreams and seemingly trivial occurrences in our daily lives. And he cites many examples from history, important discoveries, and famous people like Mark Twain. To me, the book takes coincidence and synchronicity out of the category of odd and weird, and gives it status as simply something that exists in normal, everyday life.

The first time I ever saw the word "synchronicity" was in Sue Monk Kidd's book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. I didn't agree with many things in her book, but the author's description of synchronicity was right on and hit me like a bullet. In my own past are many experiences that made me wonder, "How could that have possibly happened the way it did........just like it was set up, or planned." Hopefully, I can get these experiences out of my head and onto my blog. I have a drawer-full of journals filled with dreams and experiences, and need to take a look at those again, too.

Anyway, I'm just not able to ignore the unusual occurrences in life. Maybe my Christian faith is lacking in some way. I do all the stuff a Lutheran is supposed to do, but am not able to be numb to experiences. If there is one thing I fear most in life, it is not being able to FEEL.

Now, I need to quit this post and go do laundry and load the dishwasher. Then there are checkbooks to balance and tax info to prepare and the never-ending clutter of life to attend to. I have a sick calf to check on, too. The vet looked at her this morning and diagnosed pneumonia. I don't often care too much about any certain calf, but this one was born on Father-in-Law's birthday, which was also the day he passed away, and we named her after him. So I really want her to live and grow up and be around as a milk cow for many years!

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P.S. - Another small coincidence from a couple days ago. In some of my recent posts I have vented frustrations about my mom. Two days ago I received a forward from a pastor out in AZ.......(met him on a Lutheran discussion board, and he doesn't know about my blog.) The forwarded email was a lovely one about MOTHERS! Something you might expect to see around Mother's Day. I immediately realized I needed to absorb it and renew my appreciation for my mother. I don't often send forwards on, but this one I sent on to two friends, one whose mother just past away, and one whose mother is very ill with cancer.

Quantum Epiphany

Epiphany Sunday manifested itself today, and privileged I was to be a substitute Sunday School teacher, for I enjoy the biblical story of The Three Kings. They probably were not kings, the Bible identifies them as wise men, and the number three comes from the fact that there are three gifts mentioned. There may have two Wise Men......or six, or ten.

The regular teacher had forgotten to include the lesson papers for the students, so we ad libbed. There were three students in attendance......perfect to be the three wise men. I brought along some shiny gold bows and a bottle of perfume to be the gifts. We read the story from the Bible, then set off to find the Christ Child. We tip-toed through the hallway and down into the empty church basement, looking for stars along the way. In the church sanctuary, we spied many stars on the Christmas trees and on banners hung between the stained-glass windows. I had brought along a snow-globe with the Holy Family inside, so that was the Epiphany for us. The children knelt and presented their gifts. Then they pretended to be asleep and have the dream warning them not to go back and report to King Herod. They returned home to their Sunday School classroom by another route, as per the Bible story. Our alternate path took us by the deacons who were getting things ready for the church service, putting hymn numbers up on the board, etc. They smiled when we told them what we were doing.

Later, during his sermon, the pastor burst our bubble of awe concerning the Three Wise Men. He described them as clueless occultists! Thank goodness they did pay attention to their dreams, though! He then chided anyone who might be tempted to view coincidences as something special, or as a message from God. Maybe this pastor who I hardly know has read my mind, and was preaching to me personally........so go my paranoid thoughts. But, nonetheless, I'm intrigued by scientific studies of meaningful coincidence. Could it be a coincidence that he preached about coincidence?!

After his sermon, the pastor rushed so fast through the Lord's Prayer that we could not get all the words in. How ridiculous is that? These pastors are so hung up on following all the proper "rubrics" of the service, chanting just so, etc., etc., but then think nothing of rushing through the Lord's Prayer and ruining it for the congregation. On the way out of church, as I shook his hand, I told him, "Good sermon, but the Lord's Prayer was done way too fast."

Back to coincidence.......this afternoon after a Sunday dinner of turkey, dressing, mashed potatos and gravy, I retired to the sofa and read from Robert Moss' book The Three "Only" Things. In chapter 5, "Where Mind and Matter Meet", he writes: "The great psychologist Carl Jung lived by coincidence. He achieved a profound understanding that through the study of coincidence we will come to grasp that there is no real separation between mind and matter at any level of reality------a finding confirmed by the best of our physicists.........the incidents of our lives and patterns of our world are connected by meaning , and that meaningful coincidence may guide us to the hidden order of events..........I want to reclaim the word coincidence because I like the notion of things 'falling together' with the implied action of a hidden hand."

And here's an interesting tidbit: "........the idea that coincidences are important is troubling to some in the psychiatric community.........a Swiss psychiatrist named Klaus Conrad made up the word apophenia to describe a psychotic condition he defined as the 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by a 'specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness'." (Maybe he was a Lutheran........they're not supposed to "experience" the meaningful in their religious life.)

In conclusion, this sentence from page 109 hit home with me: "When we navigate by coincidence, we move effortlessly into creative flow. When we project our delusions onto the world around us, we put ourselves in a place of blockage and pain." I did that once, and, yes, it resulted in pain. Not physical pain, but mental pain from making a complete idiot of myself.

Somehow, the thought comes that the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence is an attempt at intentionally setting up a meaningful coincidence. The bread and wine are coincidentally the Body and Blood of Christ due to the Words spoken over them by the Pastor. Maybe quantum physics is involved........Moss writes: "Quantum physics shows us the universe as a dynamic web of connection.........Particles that have once been in contact with each other remain connected through all space and time........Subatomic particles exist in all possible states until they are observed------at which point something definite emerges from the soup of possibilities." When the pastor speaks the Words of Institution, is that akin to "observing" or recognizing the Body and Blood of Christ......bringing it into reality in the bread and wine??

Home Alone & Pondering

I'm enjoying a rare evening alone; Husband went to watch our son's high school basketball game. I washed milkers so he could get there on time. He better not complain about going alone......over the years I've attended countless school events alone while he milked cows. Turn-about is fair play.....so they say.

So how best to enjoy my little bit of quiet time alone here at home? Well, obviously, first of all, I'm blogging. Then I plan to make some popcorn and watch an episode from the Medium DVD (the first season) I bought for Christmas. I wish "Medium" was not the name given to this show. Allison is not a medium, as in one who tries to contact the dead. She receives information in dreams, an ability she did not seek out. Also, Allison's husband and three daughters, and their family interactions, add much to the show, and their house looks like a normal lived-in home, sort of cluttered and messy.

Actually, also, I'm reading a book about dreams and coincidence right now-----The Three "Only" Things-----by Robert Moss. Because of my own experiences with dreams, I believe there is a method to the madness of dreaming, but it is conveyed in a complicated language. A language forgotten in our modern age. Awhile back I read Moss' book Dreamways of the Iroquois, in which he writes of how ancient peoples viewed dreaming. It was tremendously important to them and in the Bible we get hints of this, although Christianity has turned away from putting stock in dreams. They are "only" dreams......something to be ignored. That's the gist of Moss' book, The Three "Only" Things. The other two are coincidence and imagination.

In the barn this morning, Husband had the radio tuned to the Glenn Beck Show. Beck's fill-in was taking calls concerning last evening's Iowa Caucus victors, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee. Sounds like Huckabee has the backing of home-schoolers, who are a significant sub-culture. My brother and his wife homeschool their four children. I admire people who can commit to such an undertaking, but I always hope they are also providing for their children's social development. My brother and I have argued on that point.

My sister-----whose children attend school----- and I, believe that my brother and his wife are telling their kids that school is a bad place where they would be made fun of. Things their son has said leads us to this conclusion. He acts like he wishes he could go to school, and its too bad that he'll grow up with no school buddies to remember. But, my brother and his wife are doing what they think is best, so more power to them.

I could feel like a failure, probably, because I didn't attempt homeschooling. Some of Husband's relatives homeschool, too, and one of them asked me once why I never homeschooled! Sheesh. How could I ever explain it to them. It would never have worked here on this very busy livestock farm. My husband is around all the time, expecting meals and help whenever he needs it. Most days I was overwhelmed by trying to get laundry done, cook meals, do yardwork, help Husband, etc., etc. These women that homeschool have husbands who are gone all day at a job. They have no farm responsibilities-----their total focus is on their kids, all day long. Thus, homeschooling works for them, but it doesn't work for everyone. Period.

So, bless them all if they want to support Mike Huckabee. Maybe he is the right person to be our next president-----I certainly don't know at this point, though.

Why is it that sometimes the spaces between my paragraphs are omitted? That's why this last half of my post looks like one gigantic paragraph, and I don't like it.

Silly Squirrel & Dreams

I'm so totally amazed this photo loaded that I can hardly type these words.......

I did end up missing the mailman and this silly, apple-munching squirrel is to blame! As I left the house to walk down the lane to the mailbox, this squirrel was right there staring at me, so I ran back in and grabbed my camera. We don't often see squirrels around our farm due to the surveillance of our two alert Australian Shepherds. As I was taking the pictures, the mailman's vehicle went by-----meaning I'll have to waste fuel on a trip to the post office in town.

All in all, I think my early morning dream (detailed in the previous post) sort of came true. Instead of being too late to talk to my friend, I was too late for the mailman, who also is my friend. And this morning while feeding calves I had to walk to the house to wake up my son, and on the way I happened to see the schoolbus stopped at the neighbor's place, which was unusual-----normally, I never see the bus. That's how dreams seem to work for me.......they're a bit off the mark. In the past, when keeping dream journals, I noticed this many times. I would dream of a certain person, and the next day in real life, I would run into, not the person in the dream, but a family member of theirs. Also, as this story indicates, dreams usually concern themselves with the trivial and the humdrum, because that's what our lives mostly consist of, and dreams are usually about our own lives. Occasionally, dreams will give you insight into someone else's situation, but not very often, and only if there's a reason you need to know.

Woolgathering & Sick Cow

Anyone who receives the "Doctor Dictionary Word of the Day" by email knows that yesterday's word was "woolgathering". Its definition is "indulgence in idle daydreaming" or "an absorption in daydreaming". I've gone 49 years without ever hearing that word, though its been part of my life all that time. My report cards in grade school used to show checkmarks under the category of "makes good use of time"........I tended to dawdle and daydream, and still I do that on a daily basis. We are who we are. Probably blogging is a symptom of being a "woolgatherer"! I've added it under Interests in my Profile.

This morning in my waking up dream I was seeing a deceased friend of mine get on a school bus at a house a few miles from here. I was hurrying to talk to him, but got there too late.......he was on the bus, heading south......I could see only the back of his head. Also in my mind was the song "Hard Times" by the Desert Rose Band, a band now defunct, but one of my favorites----fantastic vocal harmonies and guitars-----Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, John Jorgenson. I actually saw them in concert at a county fair years ago. I had forgotten to include them under Favorite Music in my Profile, so I remedied that this morning.


Why "Hard Times" came to mind, I have no idea.

Hard times can't hold us down forever
Hard times are gonna fade away
Hard times, we can't let them stop us, darlin'
There will be a better day............

High as the wild birds fly
Wild and free, that's how I dream
I gotta keep on dreamin'

We can have what we cannot see tomorrow
On the highest mountain
On the highest mountain
We can watch those wild birds fly

Find our own blue sky
As long as you are with me
I'll never stop dreamin'

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Husband had to call the vet out this morning for a cow named Barbie. (Husband calls her Barbie the Barbarian.) She's been acting like she doesn't feel good.....not eating, and going off by herself. The vet diagnosed her with a bad case of peritonitis due to an infected uterus......she had calved back in mid-October. Her treatment is a high dose of penicillin for few days to see what happens. The vet says its a serious case, so she may not get better. He says she may also have a DA-----that's a displaced abomasum, a twisted stomach. Poor thing. She earned her nickname because she's a fighter, so hopefully that trait will help her survive this illness.

Now, I need to cease this woolgathering and hie myself down the lane to the mailbox with a letter for my daughter, so I don't miss the mailman.

Daughter's Scary Dream

This post will connect somewhat to the previous one. The morning after Sam's funeral my daughter the college student sent me a text message on my cell phone. It said, "Give dad a hug for me. I had a dream that he died in my arms last night and so did brother. I didn't sleep good because of it." Husband was standing nearby so I hugged him and showed him the message. Before I could even feel a bit fearful, something dawned on me........it was because of my daughter's words, "he died in my arms". The same words that Sam's sister had said to me yesterday at the funeral.

Because I've had many experiences that seem to indicate some sort of thought transference going on, especially with people I'm close to, like my daughters and my mother, I wondered if this might be what happened. These are just my theories, based on what I've experienced over the years.

Yesterday, when Sam's sister was telling me about Sam's death in her arms, we were crying and hugging, making for a very emotional moment. Perhaps in this emotional, somewhat distressed state, my mind sent out a message, and my college daughter's unconscious mind picked it up. She would have been in class right then, though, so her conscious mind was in command. Maybe the message concerning his death "in my arms" lingered in my daughter's unconscious mind and came forth in a dream that night. The message was distorted and garbled, but it contained "he died in my arms", a brother dying, and a father dying. Sam was my friend's brother, and my friend had also lost her father tragically many years ago, and that memory was in my mind as I spoke to her by Sam's casket.

This theory may sound crazy to some, but it seems possible to me. I want to also say that for a few seconds there by Sam's casket, when his sister was describing his death in her arms, I almost felt like I was on holy ground. Her faith in God is very strong, and she must have been a great comfort to Sam in his last hours. None of us would wish to have someone die in our arms, but maybe it is very much a privilege when that happens.

I quickly replied to my daughter's text message, telling her I might know the reason she had the dream, and that she should just relax, say a prayer for dad and brother, and not worry.

The Martyrs of Tulle

A few nights ago, in a dream, I was closely examining a medallion which was hanging by a length of tulle (the gauzy fabric used in wedding veils, etc.). There were symbols on the medallion, but I couldn't recall them very well after waking up, so I decided to focus more on the tulle. An internet search of the word "tulle" led me to the website of the city of Tulle, in France. The fabric called "tulle" had been named for its city of origin.

A link on the Tulle website led to information on the "Martyrs of Tulle", a story I had not been aware of before. On June 9 and 10, 1944, during the World War II Nazi occupation of France, a terrible event took place in Tulle. The story is not well-known outside of France. A skirmish of some sort had taken place near Tulle, and 40 German soldiers had been killed. The Nazis were furious and marched into Tulle to exact revenge. They ordered all the men of the town to line up, and then announced that they were going to hang 120 men of Tulle. The Nazis went down the line, choosing the men that would die-----mostly they chose the ones who had dirty shoes, because that gave indication of being part of the French Resistance. The Nazis then proceeded to hang the men, from lampposts and trees along the streets of Tulle. They stopped the hangings after the 99th man because they ran out of rope.....

I know we've all heard countless stories of Nazi cruelty, and this only adds another one to the grim list, but what a devastating thing for a small town to endure. The only book written about this event was authored by an eyewitness who had to watch his son be hanged. The book has never been translated from French, evidently.

Anyway, I felt this was an interesting bit of history to pass along about an event which occurred exactly 63 years ago.

What are those quotes about the importance of remembering history? "If we forget history, we are bound to repeat it." And, "History is our memory", or something like that.