I Can Only Imagine...: dreams

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Sweet Dreams

Ha...yeah right.

Not in this lifetime in this brain of mine.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not over here having nightmares or anything (praise Jesus). But I just have THE most bizarre dreams all. the. time. And you don't have to take my word for it...just ask Jordan.

I've heard that pregnant people have totally off-the-wall dreams constantly. But no worries, peeps..that is most definitely not the issue here. Which therefore still leaves me completely baffled as to what. the. heck. is going on up there in all the neurons and brain cells and pathways and whatnots that's making my dreams so darn crazy...

Here's a little look-see into a night in Haley's ~~shoes~~ brain...

ELEPHANTS. MINIATURE ELEPHANTS.

No, not baby elephants. Miniature elephants trying to escape the fence in my backyard and getting stuck, and me having to help them.

Meanwhile, the BLACK PANTHER (not to be confused with sex panther..) that I also keep fenced in my backyard got jealous of the attention that the MINIATURE ELEPHANTS were getting. Needless to say....

he was not impressed.

So he attacked me. Playfully. But still, attacked nonetheless.

I mentioned all this was happening in my backyard...but did I mention that said backyard was the backyard of....
MY OLD DILAPIDATED FARMHOUSE

...see that fence? Yeah, you know, the one the miniature elephant got stuck in. Yep, that one.
Oh, and I can't forget that while I was saving/being attacked by my beloved animals, my family members were out....
PICKING STRAWBERRIES.

Nothing like a good strawberry shortcake to make you forget about a black panther attack.

Skip forward a couple dreams that I don't remember (aka: 14.7 seconds) and we have...
MINIATURE MALTESE PUPPIES!!!
(what is it with the miniature?!)

...that I was selflessly saving from...
A TIDAL WAVE

Yep. We all survived. Thanks for asking.

I only wish I made all this up...
*This episode of Haley's Half-Baked Hallucinations was brought to you by a restless night's sleep.*

________________________________________
Linking up with my fav Shanna today for Random Wednesday!

Have a great hump day, y'all!
xo

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Sweet Dreams

I've mentioned before that I am quite a "pro" in the dreaming department. While I know that everyone dreams multiple times each night, not everyone remembers them. But I do. And I often remember more than one of them, and in extreme detail. And as most of you know, I lost my mom to lung cancer when I was a few months shy of 12 years old. While I think about her constantly, I really don't dream about her that often. And I find myself wondering...why? Who wouldn't want to dream about their mom who they love and miss more than anything and never truly got a chance to know? Sometimes I think it's because I try to block it out and not think about it because it's too painful. But then I begin to think, "No, that can't be it" because when I do dream about her, I wake up, whether in the morning or the middle of the night, feeling so happy that I've gotten to see her. But at the same time, I also find myself extremely upset that it wasn't real and I wasn't really talking to her, hugging her, or seeing her face.

But last night I did dream about her, and I can't even begin to explain the way that it's made me feel. It was so real. I woke up thinking, that had to have really happened. There's no way it was just a dream. Because in the dream, I was who and how I am now. I wasn't the 11 year old confused little girl that I was when she died. I was me..now..20 years old and missing my mom more than ever. What I remember from the dream was that we were Christmas shopping, and she was still sick, still dying. But I was old enough to understand and fully comprehend what was going to happen and what was going to be taken from me. I remember that we were sitting on a bench, just talking, and I was telling her how beautiful that I thought she was, no hair and all. She was telling me how she didn't have much time left here, and I was telling her that it was 'ok'.
But then I realized -- it's not ok. It's not ok that she wasn't able to see me win two cheerleading national championships, graduate from high school, and be accepted into a great university. And it's not ok that she won't be able to see me graduate from that great university, or go shopping for my wedding dress with me. I'm tired of saying that it's 'ok', because it's not. I know that this was all a part of God's grand plan and that is what ultimately gives me peace at the end of each day, but that doesn't mean that I can't be mad, angry, upset, and still confused at the fact that it happened.

I always try to analyze my dreams when I have them and I really think that the purpose of my dream last night was to give me some sort of closure. When my mom was sick, I was only 11. I know that I keep repeating that, but the more that I think about how young I was, the more I realize why I'm having such a hard time coping now. I wasn't able to fully understand what was going on then. Yes, I knew that my mom was going to die. I understood what death was. But I wasn't able to fathom just how different things were going to be. Everything happened so fast (she was diagnosed in July/August '03, and passed away February '04) and I wasn't able to fully grasp what was happening before it had already happened and she was gone. I wasn't old enough to sit down with her and have serious conversations about what was going to happen and how things were going to change.
But last night in my dream, I was able to do that. And I woke up this morning feeling like I've finally found the closure that I've been missing the past 8 years. I'll never be fully 'ok' with the fact that my mom was taken from me when I was so young, but I can honestly say that I feel more at peace now. And it's crazy to think that something as simple as one dream that probably only really lasted about 8 seconds was able to do that for me. Nonetheless, I'm thankful for it. Thankful that even though He took her from me decades earlier than I would have liked, God gave me the greatest mother I could have ever hoped for.

I love you, Mama. I miss you more than anything and I wish so badly that you could be here with us still. Can't wait to see you again, one day.