Wednesday, July 9, 2008

What to Do With These


Parallel Dreams
Originally uploaded by Meloses (Ladida)

Normally, I don't remember my dreams. When I do remember anything they don't make a lot of sense, like most people's dreams. The last three nights I have had these dreams:
Sunday night I dreamt I was African American. I have NEVER dreamt such a thing before and it was neither good nor bad-that's all I remember.

Monday night I dreamt that I was watching a couple of guys load a truck with beadworked leather garments and dozens of feathered "war" bonnets aas well as other beautiful items that would have been and still are precious to Native Nations of the plains. They were handling these things very roughly. I asked a man who was Lakota who was also watching if it bothered him to see items that were always precious if not sacred to the people handled with so little respect. The dream ended.

Last night I dreamed that I was talking to the pastor of a very large African-American church who had invited me to bring my tiny congregation(a church 'mission')
to his church and then preach a sermon for his congregation. In the dream I was both a new church pastor and a fraud, pretending to have a small church start. The rest of the dream was about planning the sermon. I was struck by an image of a church in a cave or at the foot of a live volcanoe, I was going to build that image into how I felt about living with God, the explosive, powerful, and unknown God.
This was an amazingly detailed,and stimulating dream.

Now, if I haven't totally bored you to tears, let me say that these may well be images from my thoughts recently. I have been thinking a lot about racism(note the July 4th post). I always think a lot about Native Americans, but even more so recently since we are visiting Paha Sapa(Black Hills) next week-more on that later.
I have been reading about religious or spiritual development the last few weeks. Also, I was a new church pastor a long time ago, with a congregation of twenty when I started and 60 some when I left 2 years later.

In the Biblical and American Indian cultures dreams were given serious attention. I feel as if I should be paying attention now, and I guess writing this is a way to do that. Any thoughts at all on this?

2 comments:

Allie said...

I've been having pretty vivid dreams lately. I e-mailed a friend and he interpreted it -- it was dead on with how I've been feeling. It's really fascinating how your brain twists everything around and tries to work it out while you're sleeping.

equa yona(Big Bear) said...

Indeed it is. I have deamt two days in a row about my youngest brother. I called my sister today and learned that he has lost his job which in his case may mean he is into illegal activities. Hmmmm-I guess I need to pay attention.