Recurring Dreams

I don't dream. Not like I used to. Only if I sleep in the afternoon or am overheated do I have any recollection of the stories my mind tells me. It wasn't always so.
The first memory I have of a bad dream was when I was young enough to know trains and how big and powerful they are...
This train is following me on tracks that I'm walking. The front has a cartoon face, like present day Thomas the Tank Engine. But, it can't be, because the only cartoon engine I knew was the Little Train That Could!
It's a nice day and the train and I are enjoying a stroll down the tracks when it's suddenly close, too close.  It seems to be breathing on my neck. I check back and the cute cartoon face is scowling and menacing.  I start to run. It's catching up. No problem.  At the bend up ahead I will jump off the tracks. I do and take refuge in the cave beneath them. Happy I've solved that problem! Shockingly, the train leaves the tracks and pursues me into the cave. It's very close when I awake screaming.

I experienced that dream many times before I was twelve. I never bested the train.

Another dream I had as an older child, maybe high school age, involved a tangled labyrinthine house based on my grandmother's.  I would enter this warm, loving, familiar home and walk up stairs to little closets and up more stairs to attics, and through more doors to reach little hideaways under the eaves of the roof and then pass through, or behind, mirrors to get to the secret hideaway room which was full of warm comforters, soft friendly animals, and often times, giggly girlfriends. My grandmother's real house had two stories, six rooms, and a lot of love!

That was a good dream! I had it fairly often and always awoke happy.

When I was a teacher, before the start of the new year, new students, new challenges, I would have what I would come to call my 'I can do anything...no problem is too big for me to handle' dream.

It is the first day of school. I am filled with anticipation, looking forward to the new year, teaching Spanish and English to the academically talented eighth graders. Oh, no!  Some bad news from the principal...the new furniture hasn't arrived and my thirty one students will do without until it arrives. No problem, I usher them in and they take seats on the floor.  The principal drops by to inform me of another problem...the state has changed my assignment to History instead of Spanish. No problem. I will handle the class by reading ahead in the book and teaching just ahead of the students. However, the books are not due to arrive for two weeks! But, I can fake it for that long...there is a map on the wall after all.  I can start with a discussion of maps and explore how much the students already know. As I look out I am pleased they are still with me and seemingly captivated.  At the same time, the classroom door opens and, beyond comprehension, the principal brings in the State Secretary of Instruction who has come to evaluate me and my teaching style!  Thank goodness this class is with me and giving full attention. I can do this. I turn to unfurl  the map and can't quite reach the pull unless I get a little more height. So, I climb on to the counter top and manage to display the map. The students are watching, the examiner seems impressed, the principal is smiling. I can do this.

It's at this point, I realize I'm buck naked!  I awake with heart pounding and completely ready for anything my first day has to offer.