The Dream

Last night was another one of those nights where I slept and had very vivid dreams.  I do not often have dreams that I readily recall, but occasionally I do.  Perhaps not surprisingly, my dream involved pipes.  Since I have been refraining (today is day 43), I have thought I would have many such dreams, but this is only the third dream that I actually recall having:

In my dream, I was the same person who I am currently.... age, appearance, general demeanor, etc.  But, while I was a "professor", I was not working in that capacity, but instead was working at a tobacco shop. 

What was perhaps rather unique about this dream was not so much the venue itself, but my "job" per say in this shop.  I was not involved in any appreciable sense with sales or stocking or any of the typical tasks part and parcel of a salesman type job.  Instead, I was there for what apparently amounted to being a greeter or a friend of the shop.  I literally spent my work day milling around the store, smoking my pipe, sampling a huge array of different pipe tobacco blends, and chatting with folks about virtually anything that came to mind.  And, while in real-world life, I tend to be a somewhat quiet sort of fellow, in my job in this dream, I was very talkative and told jokes and stories and basically was "hanging out" even though I was working. 

The whole experience of the dream was, as you can imagine, very relaxing and enjoyable.  And, of course, I found the ample pipe smoking I did in the dream to be wonderful as well.  The majority of the dream too place in the shop itself, but then the ending too, turned out a bit odd (for me).  As the end of my work day, I walked out of the shop, saying good evening to all the friends and customers, and walked over to a bike rack, and unlocked and rode "home" on a simple, pedestrian looking bicycle.  I was in the midst of some city that I remember was in New Mexico (I recall seeing the New Mexico license plates on the vehicles).  I rode through the city for a few blocks, and came to a small home in the city where I parked my bike and was going inside when.... my alarm went off and I awoke. 

So, for me the dream was very interesting on several levels.  I have never been in New Mexico ( and have never traveled all that much in the southern US).  The job and the mode of trasport I had were quite different from my own.   Smoking my pipes in the dream seems the most understandable part of the dream for me.  But, even that was "different".  I am not sure how to describe the "difference" of that part.  But, it was carefree and perhaps even inconsequential (not sure if that is the best word I could use, but for now it seems the best I can come up with).  What I mean, is that smoking my pipe was thoroughly wonderful and enjoyable, and I did so with relish in my dream.  But it was also without judgement or without qualifiers... it was just something I was "doing". And that was very nice.  It felt in a way like it did all those decades ago when I was young, but I was myself in the present day. 

Perhaps it is nothing much to ponder, this dream I had.  But the events that unfolded and the feelings of tranquility it produced in me have been on my mind much of the day.  The dream felt wholly tangible.... until the damn alarm clock broke the spell.

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