Last night I dreamt that I was getting Baptized again. It seemed to be in a backyard swimming pool. A small boy went before me. They wanted to make it quick, because he was freezing. Then it was my turn. Then the baptizer turned to me. He knew me, but I did not recognize him. (A situation which has literally happened to me at least four times in the past month.) He reached out to me with a very hairy arm. He asked me a question that in the dream I did not understand, and now I do not remember, but it had something to do with the audience, and I responded with something like, “You mean, these people?” My mother was there, as before.
Then, instead of bracing me with his arm and lowering me into the water, he simply gave me a shove on the chest, and I fell over backwards and sank immediately to the bottom. I lay there on the bottom of the pool wondering, “Is he going to come pull me out again, or what?” Finally, I could wait no longer, and frantically swam back up on my own, breaking surface into the waking world.
A few nights ago I had a dream. It was at my uncle’s house, or at least, some dream-house that supposedly belonged to my (maternal) uncle. All of my cousins were there, including my cousin with her baby (small child?) that I have never seen, and another cousin who (in the dream) had just been released from prison. My parents were there, with my mother cancer-free. Then my grandparents arrived. I don’t know if my grandfather leaves the nursing home much in real life, but in my dream he never did, so this was a momentous occasion. He did not actually know who I was without some prompting, but that is not unusual. He did however, recognize my sister as his “#1 Granddaughter,” and he was so delighted to see everyone gathered together, I was moved to tears, which I naturally tried to hide, while the ending of “If You Leave” by OMD kept playing through my head.
Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Oh oh oh …If you leave…
Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Oh oh oh …If you leave…
Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Ho oh oh, Oh oh oh …Don’t look back!