another zuihitsu

Prose, including snippets (mini-memoirs).
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sasha
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another zuihitsu

Post by sasha » July 24th, 2020, 11:16 am

3:45 a.m. I emerge from a dream involving searching the streets of Keene at night for the auto body shop at which I vaguely remember dropping off my red subcompact onvertible. Still half asleep, I take a swig from the water bottle on the bedstand, then rise to pee. The house is dark except for the glow of the computer monitor's screensaver, which provides enough light to guide me to the bathroom. After feeling to make sure the seat is down, I plant myself upon it and answer nature's call. Strange - I've dreamt of that car before, even though I've never owned one like it - not on this side of the looking glass, anyway.

Back to bed.

6:30 - Awaken from a continuation of the automotive search, this time for the black Honda Fit, the one actually sitting outside in the driveway. I remember leaving it in a diagonal parking space somewhere on the east side of Keene's main street - but now it's not there. I press the panic button on the key fob, and hear the distant horn from an elevated garage. My brother and I race towards the spot, but workmen are rolling up the staircases and barricading the doors for the night.

My mouth is dry and full of dust, so I take another long pull from the water bottle before rising to start my day. After another pee, I wander into the kitchen. Uncharactistically, I'd done the dishes the night before, so there's little to do but empty the drying rack. Not leaving the dishes to soak overnight was a small gift card to my morning self, which I redeem watching a YouTube video about some guy in Norway on an overnight winter hike.
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"Falsehood flies, the Truth comes limping after it." - Jonathan Swift, ca. 1710

saw
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Re: another zuihitsu

Post by saw » February 18th, 2022, 11:44 am

Been having the Wildest !....Dreams lately under this Snow Moon......
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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sasha
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Re: another zuihitsu

Post by sasha » February 18th, 2022, 12:29 pm

I'm fascinated by dreams, not just their surrealism, but by the motifs that seem to repeat. I still dream about the workplace, though with the intervening years, it becomes less and less distinct, and more a place of... dream. Not surprisingly (to me, anyway), they're very rarely about the last job I had - more often, they're set in the job before that, the one where I was really able to contribute. (My final job was as just another menial in a QC lab - Smiths Medical, where careers & aspirations crawl to die...)

I kept a dream journal for several years - I'd keep one now if I could remember the damned things upon awakening.
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"Falsehood flies, the Truth comes limping after it." - Jonathan Swift, ca. 1710

saw
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Re: another zuihitsu

Post by saw » February 19th, 2022, 3:04 pm

I have been dreaming more than usual...I too have dreams about the workplace......not carpentry so much, but the second career as a city letter carrier.......I guess it's because it was such a big part of out lives......the Snow Moon and all full moons seem to ramp things up.....one odd thing about sleeping is I'll wake up earlier than I want to get up.....say 4:45 am....so I'll turn over and try to go back to sleep......what seems like me simply turning from side to side and not really sleeping, ends up I was sleeping soundly for another 2 hours......it's a new thing....and I'm wondering about my little experiment

My Dad had really bad lymphedema.....and from reading I learned the best thing for that was to raise the foot of the bed 6 inches.....so i made these blocks with a two and a half circle drilled in them for the bed leg to sit securely.....And it worked great.....So when dad passed, and my brother and I were cleaning out his place, I told my brother I'm going to hold on these in case i need them one day...

Well I have poor circulation....and bad veins.....and the lymphedema came too......probably had something to do with my by pass surgery and my stroke.....my ankles and lower legs were retaining a lot of fluid.....could hardly get my shoes on...So it dawned on me that gravity would help all these issues....the fluid, the heart, the brain.....So I jacked her up....and I'm sleeping great....longer....more restful.....

And I'm wondering how it has effected my dream cycles

more to follow
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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sasha
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Re: another zuihitsu

Post by sasha » February 19th, 2022, 5:40 pm

I've had recurring dreams, usually unpleasant. Many of them involved a little cabin in the woods with something horrible in the basement - something unseen, but felt, a black evil aura. Over time they became less intense - in the last one I remember, the cabin was just a moss-covered pile of rotted timbers. The malignance was still there, but impotent.

Another such cycle came to me maybe 25 yrs ago, and was set in the house I grew up in. In that house, my bedroom was a loft over the garage, accessed by a door in the family room, and up a steep, narrow, enclosed staircase that ended in front of a dormer window. In the dreams, there was a small doorway in the side of the dormer - but instead of leading out to the roof as it would in real life, it revealed an unlit stairway, ascending and curving to the right. The opening was so small I had to struggle to get inside, and the further up the stairway I crawled, the darker and tighter the space became until I became stuck, unable to move in either direction. At this point I'd awaken in a panic. These dreams came to me sporadically - until the night I made it all the way to the top.

I found myself in a dimly lit room vaguely reminiscent of my bedroom, but surrounded by four walls entirely of glass, like in a fire tower. It was dark outside, and the only light within was from a single desk lamp reflecting off the four glass walls. There was none of the terror of the previous dreams, only a deep sadness, a profound melancholy. I have no idea what issues my subconscious might have resolved that night, but I've never had the dream since.

I wish I'd have more lucid dreams, they're fun - to some extent you can control the narrative.
 
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"Falsehood flies, the Truth comes limping after it." - Jonathan Swift, ca. 1710

saw
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Joined: May 23rd, 2008, 7:32 am
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Re: another zuihitsu

Post by saw » February 21st, 2022, 8:43 am

Dreamt about work last night.....haven't done that for awhile...perhaps it was the prompts from this thread, that were marinating in my brain fluid....two distinct dreams I remember........that one...and one with ex wives and girlfriends living together....oh boy....better get out the manual for that one......see what psychosis I have... 8) 8)

Usual for me to remember just one dream...much less 2.......perhaps with the Found Art space.....we should have Dreams I Remember to boot.......perhaps discussions of dreams may have an impact on them......
If you do not change your direction
you may end up where you are heading

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