The Witching Hour

I often wake up between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. It doesn’t happen daily and I’ve come to accept that it's just the way it is. There are times I can fall back asleep and other times I cannot. On those occasions where returning to sleep is becoming elusive, I get up and do something in another room for a while, then return to bed where eventually I fall back asleep. Most of the time. 

A few articles I’ve read have suggested that that particular time of the morning is when the veil between the subconscious and conscious minds or, as some believe, between the spiritual and earthly planes, is the thinnest thereby offering the subconscious/spirits their greatest opportunity for communication. It seems that when I wake up at that time I will, more often than not, remember more of the dream I was just having, rather than sleeping through the night and then remembering my dreams the next morning. Maybe my subconscious, or the spirits, want me to remember that dream or some particular image from that dream, as if they are showing me something.

Why can’t they simply write me a note?

Sometimes the meaning isn’t very clear. Other times, it becomes clear on reflection. 

A while back, I had a dream where I had traveled with my ex to visit a Facebook friend in the far distant city of Melbourne, Australia. In real life, my friend had just moved in with his boyfriend, but in my dream he had moved in with a different Facebook friend, coincidentally from the same city! And I'm not sure they know each other. (Dreams are indeed interesting.) As soon as we were settled in my friends’ house, I went off to explore the city. Alone. I found myself standing on the corner of an intersection resembling Times Square or Piccadilly Circus with all the bright neon lights. Oh, and there was a freeway overpass above me, like one you’d find in San Francisco. I was standing on this corner trying to figure out which way to go, and calling my friend asking for directions.

I think I understand what this dream means. I’m off on a journey alone, trying to find my way, and that life is beautiful (that’s the neon lights) but confusing (the asking for directions). As for the overpass, I’m not sure. Perhaps it means I’m not yet on the right road, but it’s within sight. I kind of like that analogy. I think I’ll take it.

Sometimes, when I’m in the process of waking, when I’m still in that semi-dream state of being conscious of the world around me, but not yet wanting to open my eyes and face the light, I see images floating on my eyelids. These aren’t so dreamlike but images as if I had been staring at something then quickly closed my eyes and the image is then burned into my eyelids. Well, the negative form of the image.

The other morning as I was lying in this peaceful dream state, I did picture some images. And they caught me a bit off-guard.

They were puzzle pieces. Nothing more. And they were falling into their respective places forming the finished picture, which, incidentally, was blank.

I think this imagery is quite clear.

Things in my life are falling into place.

Yet, I won’t know what the finished picture is because I’m still living it. And the picture won’t be complete until I’m ready to leave this place and venture into the next plane.

I find it all positive.

Or synchronistic, as I once wrote this stanza in a poem…

Pieces of a puzzle scattered over a vast tabletop.Some hidden from view,Some on the floor,
Some missing and maybe lost.
A picture finally complete
No gaps,
No holes,
The corner pieces in place,And the edges, too.  

YouYourself
Finally togetherAfter all these years.

I wrote that poem around 1984-85 when I was coming out, putting those pieces of my life together. I was 26 then, thinking I’d have it all figured out shortly.

Youth can be so beautifully naive. 

Is there ever a time when we are fully complete?

I like to think the picture keeps changing as we evolve.

I like that analogy, I think I’ll keep it.