There is a woman I dream about from time to time. I don’t know her name and I’ve never met her. I can’t tell you what she looks like but I can feel her deep within my soul. She is warm and gentle, love and kindness radiate from her being. She makes me feel safe, she makes me feel loved. Her soft presence lights up the room. This woman takes away my loneliness and when she visits it feels like she has restored my broken heart. In my dreams it feels like I’m smiling bigger than ever before and I don’t want to miss a moment.
She visited me in my dreams last night and while she was here I felt at peace. As I began to wake I realized she was leaving and I tried desperately to stay with her in my dreams. As consousness returned my heart beat faster as did my breathing and sadness overtook me. I longed for this person I couldn’t see but felt so deeply. I know it’s only a dream but my connection to her feels so real, as if she is part of me.
Those dreams were over 25 years ago and took place while I was an inmate at a correctional center. After each dream I would go out to the rec yard where I would sit and try and remember every detail of the dream. As I did I would stare off into the mountain and wonder where she was.
Today as I recall those dreams I am a free man and have been for many years. I have traveled all over the States and lived in many places. I have settled down and I now live very close to where I was locked up so many years ago. I have no connection to this area except to that mountain where I use to sit and think about that woman.
From my front porch I can see that same mountain. Laying next to me in my bed each night is the woman who visited me in my dreams so many years ago. I can’t explain it but I know I was dreaming of my wife Barbara who I would one day marry and move back to live with near that mountain.
