One thing you will learn when reading anything from me is that I have a very active dream life. It reminds me of that song by the Wilson sisters, the rock group, "Heart".
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes.
Every moment of the night I live another life."
(Actually, for all the posts I've done here it's absolutely amazing that I've done so little dream telling.)
MY DREAM
I was in San Francisco and they had just had a major earthquake. I was walking aimlessly through the city amazed at the level of destruction. Emergency personnel were trying desperately to rescue as many people from under the rubble as possible.
I came across a group of Firemen who were standing next to a collapsed house in heated debate. They saw me passing by and called me over immediately.
They told me that the problem is that they knew there was a person trapped under the rubble of the house, but they were having trouble getting to them. There was a long, dark tunnel that lead downward to the heart of the basement of the home. The tunnel was very small, tight and long and all the firemen were too big to fit into it. The person under the house had their leg trapped in some debris and could not move nor loose themselves. Also, because the tunnel was so narrow they didn't have enough room to maneuver and free their foot that way either.
Since I am a smaller woman (generally speaking and compared to a big fireman), I knew they were going to try and talk me into going into that tunnel. What they wanted me to do was to go into the tunnel, head first with a rope in my hand. I was to crawl deep into the house with a rope in my hand. When I got to the trapped person I was to scoot past them, free their foot, wrap the rope around their waist and back out of the hole, at which time the firemen would pull the person out. Even as they were explaining their plan to me, the house kept shifting and I knew it could completely collapse at any moment.
Being the devoted and sensitive Christian that I am, I had but one thought. "THEY ARE NUTS IF THEY THINK I'M GOING TO DO THAT!"
If the house didn't collapse on the both of us on it's own, it would probably collapse from two people moving around inside it. Plus they wanted me to go into that tiny space in total darkness, head first ALL THE WAY down. And believe me, it was a large house and it would be a very long crawl to get to the trapped person. Perhaps the person might even not survive until I got there and I would risk my life for nothing at all.
All I could focus on was that tunnel of death and I thought it was very wrong of the firemen to insist that I put my life on the line. I didn't see any of them going into that hole. No way was I going to go into that hole. End of story.
I was trying to think of the best way to tell them all this when someone mentioned that it was a woman in the hole. I hadn't pictured that. Then somebody said, "Does anyone know who the woman is?"
Another person responded with, "Yeah. It's something like 'Rene Raehan'."
I asked, as my mouth began to go dry, "would the name be, 'Irene Rahn'?"
The fireman said, "Yes. That's it! How did you know that?"
At that minute I realized it was my mother trapped down in that tunnel and in that one second EVERYTHING changed!
I made a dive for the tunnel and one of the fireman grabbed me to hold me back. He said, "Wait, wait. You've got to get the rope and we need to find you a flashlight."
I was completely at the edge of rage at their slowness. I thought, "Let's go, let's go , let's go! I've got to get into that hole."
I could barely stand having to wait to get into that tunnel and help Mom. She was all alone, injured and probably very scared in that hole.
It all came down to love. As long as it was a stranger in that dark place I was just thinking about myself. When I loved the person in trouble, all thoughts for my own safety vanished.
Actually, Mom always says (in real life), bravery isn't about not being afraid, it's about doing something, even though you're scared, just because it's the right thing to do.
Then I woke up. Hmmm.
