Encourage Dream Sharing

Previously accidentally posted in All Craft Connection.

Children, like adults, dream every night, but unless you ask them to share their dreams, they, like adults again, are unlikely to remember them. By asking your children about their dreams, you are glimpsing a part of their lives that is filled with symbols, feelings, and attitudes.

Often, children will interpret their own dreams, as my youngest daughter did on occasion. In 3-Year-Old Interprets Her Own Dream, Brittney wasn't aware that she was interpreting her dream, but I was. 

When you encourage your children to share their dreams, you are discovering aspects of your children that you might not have known. You might be surprised, when you ask them about the monster in their dreams, to discover that the monster looked like you! And when you review the previous day, you might remember losing your sanity at one point and, as you review the situation, you will understand how you might have appeared to be a monster to your child.

When your child relates his or her dream, ask questions and ask for descriptions: 

What did the monster look like? 

Describe the house you were visiting. 

Does any element (person, place, or thing) remind you of anybody or anything. 

How did you feel during the dream? 

Emotions felt during a dream will give you further clues about how your child feels in waking life. 

Why would you want to encourage your child to share his or her dreams? Let's say your child dreamed about a snake that was continually striking your child. Upon questioning, you learn that the snake looks like your child's daycare provider. Now you can take action.

When children share their dreams, they share their emotions, their feelings, and their thoughts. By investigating their dreams, you can learn about things that matter to your child, that frighten your child, and that bring him or her joy. All you have to do each morning is ask, "What did you dream about last night?" and you will enter your child's world in a way you've never dreamed ;)

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Answers Come In Dreams

Believe it or not, when I've been beaten up emotionally, when the answers to all my prayers feel so far away they seem unreachable, I send myself to bed with a command to dream the answers.

Before I got divorced, for example, I asked for a dream to tell me if I should get divorced. I did everything imaginable to prepare myself for making an informed decision. One dream indicated that I should divorce my (now ex) husband, but I couldn't rely on just one dream. I visited a priest, I read the Bible cover to cover, hoping that something or somebody would enlighten me with ANSWERS. I went to Alanon demanding them. Was I making a mistake by staying with an alcoholic? How would my children survive after living in such chaos? Or would they build "character" if I stayed with him?

Of course, nobody would tell me what to do. I had to figure it out on my own. So I asked for another dream. That one too, indicated divorce, but I couldn't rely on just dreams, right?

So I bought books on divorce and how it affected children, I read about how, if I divorced him, I should move close to him so he could visit every night if he wanted to, but months later, I still didn't know what to do. So I said, "God, you know me. I need things spelled out in black and white. Please give me a dream that tells me exactly what I should do."

A couple of nights later I dreamed that my husband handed me a document. The black words across the top of the legal-sized white paper read, "Decree of Divorce."

I didn't need anyone to analyze that dream. I knew what it meant because I had asked for it. If you are having difficulty understanding your dreams and you want them analyzed for free, read my article, "Have Your Dreams Analyzed FREE During National Dream Weekend."

Interruptions in the Pursuit of a Goal

I had dreams – when I was a child – of becoming a writer. My first memory of a Christmas present that excited me, other than the dolls I loved, was a typewriter (yes, I'm that old). I immediately put paper into it and wrote story after story.

And then the ribbon ran out and my parents refused to replace it. So I manipulated it back to the beginning by rewinding it with my already ink-laden fingers and began again. Eventually, the ink completely dried out and I went back to using paper and pencil. But I never gave up writing and I never gave up my dream.

Though I had four children, I carried the dream of one day sitting on the shores of a lake, pencil and paper in hand, writing. My dream house had a back porch that faced the lake and it was screened in so the bugs wouldn't bother me. 

I thought, when I got older, I would find more time to pursue my dream, to buy that home on a lake, but it hasn't happened yet. My children are now grown, and while I would love to write for a living, and while I do write (but not yet for a living), my day job consists of caring for two of my grandchildren and two other children Monday through Friday. 

Every day the phone rings. Somebody wants to talk to me about one thing or other: my mom, my kids, my grandkids, my friends.

I'm always being interrupted. Just now, for example, my pen pal from England (I wrote to her when I was a teenager) interrupted me on facebook (where we reconnected). I'm so excited about this interruption – it's the first time we actually spoke in years. The last time we talked, sometime around the time John Lennon died, was on the telephone, when all we said to each other was, "OH MY GOD! I can't believe we're actually talking to each other." We started doing that again. We couldn't help ourselves.

Sadly, we haven't even met yet. 

Look what I'm doing – I'm interrupting myself!

And you know what? I have learned to love interruptions! I love when my kids or grandkids call me on the phone. I love talking to my parents, my sisters, and my friends.

And I also love to write. This week I wrote an article for Associated Content, entitled, "Writers Block – The Key to Unlocking The Block" – it took me days to write it because of all the interruptions! And the reason it took me forever to write is because the day I started writing it, March 3rd, up until the day I posted it (today), every single minute of every single hour of every single day was interrupted by tiny little voices, phone calls, diapers needing to be changed, meals to be prepared and fed, and a multitude of other interruptions.

I love to write and I will continue to write. I vow to never use the interruptions as an excuse for not writing. And I will savor all of the interruptions, because they come from people I love and care about. If nobody interrupts me, I miss opportunities to share time with the people I love.

George Eliot once wrote that "it is never too late to be what you might have been." So savor your interruptions, especially when they come from people you love.

It's time to interrupt myself again. The mention of meals above made me hungry.