First: did I ever mention my friend's dream to you? If felt like something else to me.
(She was an old woman, almost blind from glaucoma, and her husband had recently died after losing a leg and had left her alone. She had been depressed, felt increasingly frail, and had planned to turn down an invitation for Thanksgiving at her daughter's. Then she had this dream, which she carefully wrote down in the form of a letter to me. When I dropped by that morning, she started crying, and read me the letter. Later we sent it to a relative of hers who was dying of cancer.)
"This morning I had a dream. I am writing this before it fades from my memory. I saw Charles again.
"I was walking on a little track, like a railroad track, but more narrow, and to my left were great white waves, lashing up higher and higher to a white misty sky. Charles came walking to me, in his nice jacket I always liked. I told him I was afraid, but he said, Come with me. I am afraid, I said, and he showed me how to sit down on the track and dangle my legs over the side. I told him we would ruin our clothes if we went out into the waves, because the little track began to move towards them. Charles left me then, and disappeared into a crowd of people. They were talking, and out of the crowd came a man who seemed familiar to me. He helped me up and said, Your trip has been postponed. There is something you need to do.
"Then a pretty young girl came to me, wearing a white dress, and she led me down a path to a beautiful park where rocks were all around a deep pool. I climbed on the rocks like a girl, without worrying about falling or being old and dizzy, since I wasn't.
"These are the most beautiful rocks, I told the girl. Then I saw the pool and was drawn to it. I wanted to go inside it, but the girl took my hand. I'm going to take you home, she told me, and then I woke up in my bed."
I could see, she told me, and Charles was young again, like me.
What a beautiful dream, I said. It was real, wasn't it?
It wasn't a dream, she agreed: it was so clear, I can see it now, just as clearly as anything. . .
I said, Charles loves you, and others love you, not just here; and when it is time, it will be so easy, as easy as your dream.
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Date: 2004-12-16 01:11 pm (UTC)(She was an old woman, almost blind from glaucoma, and her husband had recently died after losing a leg and had left her alone. She had been depressed, felt increasingly frail, and had planned to turn down an invitation for Thanksgiving at her daughter's. Then she had this dream, which she carefully wrote down in the form of a letter to me. When I dropped by that morning, she started crying, and read me the letter. Later we sent it to a relative of hers who was dying of cancer.)
"This morning I had a dream. I am writing this before it fades from my memory. I saw Charles again.
"I was walking on a little track, like a railroad track, but more narrow, and to my left were great white waves, lashing up higher and higher to a white misty sky. Charles came walking to me, in his nice jacket I always liked. I told him I was afraid, but he said, Come with me. I am afraid, I said, and he showed me how to sit down on the track and dangle my legs over the side. I told him we would ruin our clothes if we went out into the waves, because the little track began to move towards them. Charles left me then, and disappeared into a crowd of people. They were talking, and out of the crowd came a man who seemed familiar to me. He helped me up and said, Your trip has been postponed. There is something you need to do.
"Then a pretty young girl came to me, wearing a white dress, and she led me down a path to a beautiful park where rocks were all around a deep pool. I climbed on the rocks like a girl, without worrying about falling or being old and dizzy, since I wasn't.
"These are the most beautiful rocks, I told the girl. Then I saw the pool and was drawn to it. I wanted to go inside it, but the girl took my hand. I'm going to take you home, she told me, and then I woke up in my bed."
I could see, she told me, and Charles was young again, like me.
What a beautiful dream, I said. It was real, wasn't it?
It wasn't a dream, she agreed: it was so clear, I can see it now, just as clearly as anything. . .
I said, Charles loves you, and others love you, not just here; and when it is time, it will be so easy, as easy as your dream.