I had a marathon dream last night that involved about ten different settings, four different eras of my life, my ballet teacher, her diseased father’s used gun and ammo shop, costumes, a high school fling, joining a cult, eating crushed cookies packaged up into little paper tubes, fantastic DIY interior re-designs of homes from my childhood, my brother and sister-in-law, and a speech I made about why overweight men can be very attractive.
In the midst of this insanity, there was a little off shoot dream. I don’t remember the images or plot, just the basic message. This mini-dream was an update on my emotional status of coping with cancer. I got the news that I was moving along on my path of coping. Much of the grief and exhaustion of cancer was behind me now. I was largely free to move on with my life. I learned I had already started to live a post-cancer life months ago but hadn’t yet realized it.
In my dream there was no sense of relief or reflection; that would have been too much a part of recovering from cancer. Instead I was just on to the next thing. I didn’t know what that was. But I knew what it wasn’t. It wasn’t cancer.
In ten-years, this is the first time I’ve had a cancer dream that was not a stress dream. It’s pretty damn nice.
Do you dream about cancer? Have you ever had a good cancer dream? How do you think you’ll know if or when cancer starts to take a back seat to the rest of your life?
“Everything Changes is, without doubt, the most forthright, emotionally sophisticated, and plain-old valuable book of its kind I've seen.”
