The Return

Last night I dreamt I was returning to work after a long illness.  I was running a few hours behind schedule but, while they were holding my position at work, they really weren't expecting to me to return that day.  I went to the pantry to grab a box of fiber cereal snack bars to take with me only to find that they were all gone.  So, I grabbed a roll of Ritz crackers instead and headed off to work, my husband driving.

When I walked into the office, I found that everything had changed.  My co-workers were the ladies I'd worked with years ago when I lived in Idaho.  The office was in the living room an old Victorian house.  Everybody was sitting in a semi-circle, either on low chairs or on the floor, with strange new phones that did the calling for them - no computers so they had no idea to whom they were speaking or why.  I wasn't ready to return to that, so I decided to go check out the rest of the office.

As I walked out of that room, it became apparent that this was my daughter's house, a very large, old Victorian house in the city.  Her roommates wandered quietly through the rooms.  I went upstairs and found a large room full of young girls, laughing and chatting and dancing.  They all had either freshly washed faces or had drawn (or were in the process of drawing) bold, geometric shapes with bright colors on their faces, necks, limbs and torsos.  A voice from behind me smiled and said, "These are their real faces.  The ones they create for themselves."  I smiled at the joy emanating from them.

I looked out the window and saw the ocean and suddenly I was there, walking over the rocks at the ocean's edge.  I was barefoot.  I was walking with a coworker/friend and an older man.  I was filled with a sense of rightness and belonging as I climbed over these rocks and made my way through the mists to the ocean's water.  I sat there, alone, on a large sea boulder with my feet dangling in the waves and breathed in happiness.