Dreams:Visions

“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.” ~Marsha Norman

In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a minute, an hour, a day. Some of those thoughts manifest again in our dreams, while some are actually visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between the two.

To some people, a dream and a vision are one and the same; however, the reality is that not all dreams are visions. Much of our energy is lost in the fantasy of dreams because dreams never really bear fruit. But the same cannot be said of visions -- these are messages from the Universe, and each is meant for a different purpose in life.

Consequently, one person's vision cannot be that of another, no matter how similar it may seem. To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus, when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled. The spiritual side of the Universe knows everyone's heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to nurture if that person could not be trusted to carry it out? The message is simple: a spiritual commitment precedes a vision.

The other night I had what I first thought was a dream. I was in the woods, walking among the trees and enjoying the comforting silence. It was peaceful. Suddenly, I came to a clearing through the tall trees. In front of me was a river. The river was full of huge boulders and I could hear the roar of the rapids as the water raced over its course.

I don't know how I knew, but it was somehow obvious to me that I had to get to the other side of this raging river. There was no way I could wade across and I saw no rope strung from this side to that to hold onto to make my way across. As I stood by the bank and stared helplessly at the fast-moving water, I watched as a large flat stone began to slowly emerge from just under the surface of the water, about two feet out. A stepping stone!

I stepped out and onto the stone. Then it happened again. About two feet from me, another large flat stone emerged from the raging water. Then just as slowly another appeared, and another, until I was across the river on the other side. When I turned around, the stepping stones were gone. The helpless feeling was also gone and I felt free to continue my walk.

I didn't give any more thought to the dream, until a couple of major events occurred in my life, each a couple of days apart. Once recognized and the problems settled, it caused me to re-examine the dream. What I had experienced had suddenly allowed the dream to take on a whole new meaning. I began to see that it had a symbolic texture to it. It had been a vision of several problems which I would encounter and have to resolve. To check my awareness, I discussed the dream with Robert and he agreed.

As a part of my new and growing spiritual awareness, I am now being shown the subtle differences between dreams and visions -- how exciting! Hmmm, according to the vision, I still have a couple of problems ahead ... I wonder what those will be and if I will recognize them as such?

“The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between sleep and wakefulness, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment, you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality and it really happened.”