dream

The other morning I woke up to my own soft laughter. It took me a second to remember where I was, and why I was laughing. I had been dreaming that I was chasing a rabbit through a meadow. I was wearing a sundress and my feet were bare. It was dusk. The grass was thigh-high and smelled so strongly of summer that I was still smelling it as I remembered the dream. I was running and laughing, getting more eager as the rabbit dashed in a new direction. I remember seeing my hands clearly splayed out in front me, reaching for the animal, my fingernails painted red like they have been for months now. I had my adult hands, my current hands... but my mind, my energy, my laugh... they were all far more youthful. At one point my bonnet flew off, and that was when I first knew I had been wearing a bonnet. The sun sank lower. My heart sped up... it sounded like a war drum. It was like shaky camera-work in a film. I was suddenly standing in a forest of trees that bordered this meadow, I was gasping for breath, and I had forgotten all about the rabbit. I was disappointed that I had let it get out of sight - and I hadn't meant to be in the forest yet anyways, so I looked at the sun setting and hurried back into the meadow. That's the only time in the dream I felt worry of any kind.

The meadow was safe, the evening air cool. I walked slowly through it and saw the rabbit still bounding away, which made me laugh, remembering how I had chased it. The wind was whispering protection all around me. I was happy... So happy that I woke up just moments before my alarm went off - enough to open my eyes, find myself laughing, remember that I was in bed at home in the attic, and then that I had been dreaming. I loved the smell of that grass.

I am open to opinions on the significance of this dream.

Love to all.