Dream Journal Entry #1

I am taking a Dream Works in Counseling class in July. Yesterday, our professor emailed us, telling us to begin journaling ours or someone else's dreams for class. So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm not one to remember my dreams, usually. I have had/occasionally still do have a lot of nightmares. {Read more about that.} Those are usually the ones I remember- the bad ones that wake me up and keep me fearing going back to sleep. But anyways, for class, and for my own personal sense of dream journaling, I'll be posting any dreams I remember having. Again, I got the email yesterday so I just started, and sure enough, last night I had a nightmare for lack of a better word. So, here's Journal Entry #1. If anyone knows anything about dream interpretation and would like to give me their two cents, please feel free. Anyone can leave a comment below {I do believe}. I'd love to know your thoughts!

April 20, 2010:
                For some reason, I was running in complete darkness. For some reason I think it was after church, but I’m not 100% sure. I feel like I was waiting on Mom to get ready so we could go somewhere, and it was time to go but she hadn’t even showered yet. So I got some keys and started walking down the road in the pitch blackness. I didn’t have a phone or anything with me to see. Somehow I came upon this old, big house, so I went towards it. I feel like the house was (in some ways) First Baptist Church (my old church), like, for example, as I walked towards the back of it, I felt like I was behind FBC. But as I got up on it, I saw old doors, and old architectural designs. I guess I was looking for a door, so I stayed close to the church so I could see what I was looking for, and as I walked around it, I saw that there were huge speakers locked up under the (patio, maybe?) of the side of it. I thought that was completely normal for some reason- because maybe they had fundraisers, or BBQs, or hosted events or something. (I mean they were huge speakers.)  Anyways, as I walked around the right side of the house, I saw some old stairs leading up to what looked like maybe a side door that would maybe lead to a kitchen or something. For some unknown reason, I took off running and stomping up the stairs, tried my key, and it let me in. I bolted the door open and yelled, “HELLOOO?!” It hit me as I was entering the doorway that this really might be a family’s house, and they might be inside. I mean, some people live in really old, run-down houses. And then I thought, “What if they think I’m a burglar?” But when I bolted in the door and yelled that, I looked around. There wasn’t a light on in the house. There was furniture everywhere like a family had lived in it, but it seemed deserted. There were cobwebs everywhere. I remember being TERRIFIED at this point, for some reason. I started walking and looking around, very slowly. I remember seeing an old grand piano in the next room.

                And then I woke up. I was really scared when I woke up. I don’t know why. Nothing scary happened really. The house was just really creepy and I felt like something was going to get me, or pop up out at me, or I was never going to make it out of that house alive. My alarm was what woke me up; otherwise I feel like I would have kept on discovering what was in the house. Thank God for alarms, then! I was so scared to go back to sleep that I ended up just getting up after alarm #1 (which is not always my norm).

                It’s ironic that I’m so scared of this dream, even though nothing really bad happened in it, yet. It’s ironic because as I went to bed last night, I began reading the book of Joshua in the Bible. I read this verse and repeated it to myself over and over in hopes of memorizing it. Let’s see if I can still do it this morning {I’m going by memory alone here…} – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged. For the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.” -Joshua 1:9

                I looked it up after I typed this, and yep, I forgot the first sentence at first but then it hit me after I finished the rest. I memorized the verse last night, and then here I go, waking up terrified, afraid to go back to my precious, precious sleep. :(