vague lucidity & synchronicity

reaching out.. just beyond arms' length is this lucidity in my dreamlandscapes.

when i was about ten, i had my first lucid dream. i am in a burning barn with my young neighbor. i realize: we are dreaming, and anything is possible, so i hug him and we teleport to outside the barn, and watch it burn down.

on various occasions (if only if only i kept a constant dream journal my whole life, i started again this week), i realize. two nights ago dream: my friend and i are discussing creative collaboration at a large warehouse show, and she notices, not five yards away, that a slumbering gentleman looks like our mutual friend. i think, no way, that's not him. then i think: sure, this is a dream. i'd like to see my friend. there he is! as soon as i make that choice, i awaken.

in the cases i can call to memory, i don't take much action when i realize i am dreaming. my attitude shifts to playfulness, i enjoy the scene as it plays out, and soon awaken. i would like to have fantastical adventures in dreamland. tonight, perhaps.

about a week-and-a-half-ago dream: i am a young mother. my daughter is 2.5 years old, strawberry blonde hair. i never see her face. i am following her around a community center, making sure she is safe as she plays. another young mother has three children, two boys and a girl my daughter's age in the middle. the girl's name is Phillipe, her ma calls her pippi. i had read an interview in a newspaper with this mother in which she stated she didn't like her sons at all, that they were nuisances. this shocked me.

in the morning after the dream, i checked the winter class catalogue, and noticed a program called What are children for?. the second sentence of the program summary looks like this: Phillipe Aries famously argued that children and childhood did not exist before the modern era. i got rampant chills to see this name recur. this phillipe's idea is that pre-twentieth century, children dressed like adults, acted like adults, and were procreated for family labor. interesting that my dream involved a child at play.

paying more attention to my dreams has helped me to find these synchronicities. writing them down helps. in a few days, i'll be waking to an electronic alarm, which tends to hinder my ability to recall dreams. perhaps i'll attempt setting my body alarm, so that my dreams reach that certain level of satisfaction precisely at the time i need to be vertical! i want to always allow myself the time to reflect & write about dreams soon after waking. there is no rush.