03/10/05
Quiet House & The Rivers Of The Island
This is just a vague bit of dream I had shortly before waking up.
I had a map of Mackinac Island; it's kind of like I was there, or going there, or else just at home getting ready to go there. I had been reading or learning about different sites on the island and came to a section (in a book?) about the island's streams and "rivers." Now--the island is so small that it has no rivers. There is one public stream I know of--Brown's Brook--and there might be one or two more but I do not know of them or if they exist anymore. (I think there used to be one near the grounds of the Grand Hotel, and there was something that at least resembled a stream out near Croghan Water, near the middle of the island.) But in my dream the narrator or writer or whatever distinctly mentioned "rivers." He mentioned it in much this way:
"...here the island has a selection of 'rivers'/(fill in other term)..."
I believe he (she, whatever) put "rivers" in quotes, to indicate that they were not true rivers (though this MIGHT not have been his intent), and in addition there seemed to be a second word that could be used interchangeably with "rivers."
The map was basically an outline of the island. Most of the "rivers" were concentrated up in the northern section below Point Aux Pins, and curved inward, forming "rings" or rows of a sort as they went inland. They were basically horizontal, moving from left to right and bowing out at the bottom (like a vague U shape). I do not know if these were entire rivers stretching from shore to shore or two rivers starting/ending at each shore and coming close to meeting inland. There were lots of them up there in general rows (though it did not look manmade, it looked like a natural convergence of rivers, just in an odd formation). Then there was a solitary river, on the west side of the island, further south of these but still closer to the north end of the island. This "river" would have been close to the actual location of Brown's Brook (which is up north along the west shore), but I remember in my dream this river was not analogous with Brown's Brook, because I recall that when I looked at this map I was surprised that Brown's Brook was not included on it. In fact I was going to place this river further south in my description of the dream, but I'm pretty much sure it actually was near where Brown's Brook really is. So perhaps in my dream the brook was in a different location, maybe further south.
I puzzled over this map. "The island has rivers...?" I asked myself. (The map was about standard page size, maybe newsprint; I think I was in my room.) I frowned. "Where's Brown's Brook? Does it not count because it's too small...?" I figured these other "rivers" were likely just streams, but I did feel some surprise and interest that maybe the island had actual rivers. Go figure.
(One oddity is the name Coquart Brook has been sticking with me, even though I do not recall that name being used in the dream. I learned recently (before the dream, of course) that Coquart Brook was the OLD name for Brown's Brook, according to Wood's Historic Mackinac. Maybe I referred to the brook by this name, or at least thought of it in my dream?)
The dream gets very hazy around here, sorry. I believe Ma was going to the island and she wished to know the best place to walk around. I knew she would get tired easily because she hates walking (which is why even what she was doing in the dream would be out of character for her), so I think I tried to steer her away from a rough patch of road along the West Bluff. I seem to recall she had a photograph of a part of the road and there was a rock formation jutting out similar to one I saw in real life, but I'm not sure about this; I might have steered her away from taking that route because the rocky landscape made it hard to navigate. I might have recommended the East Bluff but maybe not, because it's steep there too in places. On the other hand, maybe I advised her not to take to the West Bluff simply because most of it is privately owned, and you can't walk out of town that way without passing the Grand Hotel, which charges you a fee just to take that road by them. (The fee does not apply to people walking INTO town along the West Bluff.) I had a bad experience on the West Bluff the last time I visited the island in real life, so it has left a sour taste in my mouth, and I accordingly advised her against it in my dream.
There might have been something regarding the "Northwest Knapsack," a part of the bluff mentioned in Wood's Historic Mackinac; that might have compared to the photo Ma had (if she did--sorry I'm so hazy!), even though that rock formation *I* saw was further south, and the Knapsack is much further north. That might have been an area I told Ma not to walk around because it would be difficult to traverse. I'm not sure. All I know for sure is she was looking for a good route and I was advising her against one that I felt would be too difficult or inconvenient.
In addition, I think I looked at the map again and focused my attention on Market Street (it may have been showing up on the outline map now, along with some houses along it, though the rest of the map seemed virtually blank), and there was one particular house here that I focused on. I do not understand or remember the significance of this but there was one particular house, a Victorian cottage I'm assuming, that I gave the name "Quiet House," or else it already had that name. I was interested in this for some reason. Maybe I planned to give this house to one of my characters in my fiction; I do seem to recall I was thinking of that. Yes, I think it had to do with that. I was looking at the map and trying to figure out where some of my characters lived and one of them I decided to place in the vicinity of "Quiet House." I don't know if I gave it that name or if that was its real name though, nor if it was even really there on the map, or if I simply saw a house and pretended that was its name, and decided to fictionalize a real building. It might have been light gray; it could have been like I got a vague image of it in my head, or maybe the map changed into a view of the houses along the street; or perhaps I just imagined that. *shrug*
No real-life associations I can think of other than my abiding interest in Mackinac Island.
Don't Let Me Wake Up!
I dozed off sitting upright on the couch with the TV on, wondering if I would have a dream; I used to have all sorts of funky dreams while sleeping lying down on the couch, but lately my dreams have been very difficult to remember, especially napping.
One part had to do with Cosmas, and maybe another cat, and maybe me chasing him/them around the house and trying to catch him/them before they could get away; not too sure.
In one part, maybe right before I woke up (so maybe it was the last part of the dream), I was sitting where I was napping in real life (on the end of the couch nearest the TV), and it seemed to be night. I had my new paper journal, "Hold On My Heart," and was attaching a cat sticker to its lower right-hand corner, trying to line it up with the image on the front of the journal. In real-life the journal is big, spiralbound and hardcover, a deep pink color with an image of six brightly colored hearts on the front; I appended various heart stickers to it myself, as well as the title "Hold On My Heart" (a song by Genesis). In the dream though the heart image seemed to have been replaced by a painted landscape, maybe a Kinkade, kind of Impressionist looking. I was trying to line up this little cat sticker with the angle of the corners. It seemed to be a medium to dark gray cat, sitting in classic cat style, facing right maybe with its head turned to look forward or in three-quarters view; it might have had white face markings, and the sticker itself might have been lined with gold gilding. A nice little sticker, a sophisticated-looking cat. I thought I had it basically straight (maybe I considered putting it at an angle so I wouldn't have to obsess over getting it just right), and pressed it down, only to see that it was in fact just a little bit crooked! >_< Grrr. Well, I had to just live with it, and I held the journal out to admire my work. Then I thought, "CRAP! I have to scan it and upload the picture to my Yahoo! Photos all over again!" ^_^;
One more part of the dream, if these were in fact all the same, was almost lucid and more of a sensation than anything since I wasn't really looking at anything. I was sitting upright on the couch, as I was in real life, and seemed to be holding something in my arms. I vaguely realized it was my (deceased) cat Pepper and I was hugging her. I somehow "knew" I was dreaming, and that if I woke up she would be gone; but it was also like a feeling of her "really" being there, maybe like a ghost or a visitant. My eyes were closed the entire time and I seemed to hug her tighter and start crying, saying to myself, "Please don't wake up, please don't wake up yet!" I didn't want her to go. :( I did not feel anything specific like fur, and I do not recall her purring or anything even though I sensed she was comforting me. I just felt the impression of something about her size in my arms--I even remember thinking that it really DID feel like I was holding something, for me being in a dream--and I did not want to have to let her go. That "dream" sort of seemed to fade out and lose focus eventually, so maybe I awoke too much for it to be there anymore, or shifted into something else. It was very weird and hard to describe since I was both "lucid" and yet not quite lucid; aware that I was dreaming, and yet not aware that it wasn't really happening in some way. :/
Real-life associations: I did in fact start my new journal, "Hold On My Heart," yesterday, and it stood out because this is my seventh paper journal yet the first one I've done that isn't a composition book; the bigger heavier structure of the journal, and the smaller lines to write on, daunted me at first. In real life I customize the covers of my journals with stickers and then scan an image of them to post online in a Yahoo! Photo album of my paper journals, and I did that yesterday (something I had put off with my last two journals). Since I'm so anal I have to make sure to finish all the customizing BEFORE scanning it else I would have to scan it again after the additions; this frustrated me recently because the stickers on my very first journal were coming off, and I had to glue them back on and hope I had appended them to it just as they were in the original scan! >_< (Yes, I'm that picky.) So that was where the journal image and sticker came from, and why it flustered me when I added the sticker to it. As for Pepper, I do not know why she appeared so suddenly in my dream.
The strangest thing about this dream was its realism and clarity. The specifics of me fiddling with the cat sticker, down to the exact way in which I stuck it on the book--and the feeling of holding Pepper in my arms even as I still dreamed--were very distinct, something quite odd for my dreams, especially lately.
2005 Dreams
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