I Woke Up In a Dream

    Two mornings ago I dreamed a vivid dream. I woke up at exactly 3:30, watched the clock change to 3:31, and went back to sleep. Suddenly I woke up again -- this time inside my dream -- to find myself lying in cool wet sand on some unknown beach. I was confused: Where was I? Why was I outside? Yet it all seemed somehow familiar. I felt more awake than I had a few minutes prior and more fully myself than I had ever been. I looked in front of me: A vast and perfect ocean was before me, pink with the setting sun, yet the ball of the sun could not be seen. The water was crystalline and clean, and I could see huge crests forming far out where they shouldn't be any. Some of them seemed to foam and rise into immense cloud formations.

    I had this strange sense of Something Coming, a tidal wave, a tsunami, but I wasn't waiting in fear, just expectation. I could hear/feel/see something coming in the distance, and as I strained to beckon it forth, even reaching out my hand toward the expanse, the water seemed to dissipate slightly at my command as if to make way for... something. It kept calling me louder and louder, but always so very gently. There was no trepidation at this ocean. It was not the great and mysterious Wine Dark Sea. It was full of light and clarity and perfection. I wanted so badly to walk straight into it.

    I stared dumbfounded at this magnificent ocean for some time, wondering why I was here and what was coming. I started to hear the coming Event more clearly and see my future. I felt this tremendous force from the center of the ocean, from the earth, and from myself. I stretched out my hand again to try to part the waters so I could walk through them to my destination, thought of Moses, and then: Who am I to part these waters? As doubt filled my mind, the power seemed to slip away. Could I really part them anyway?

    Then the dream became less conscious: The tide started coming in around me, almost as I imagined that was the reason for my waking up so suddenly, it became true, and I started to get wet. Ah, yes, that's why I woke up in the first place. Better get inside. Now the water was darker, like the mirky waters in Southern California. Then I heard my mother calling me, asking why I was outside, and almost simultaneously I explained that I simply fell asleep in the sand. Now it was as if I lived there and my house was just to my right.

    None of this seems as spectacular in writing it down, but I can't overemphasize the awesome power I felt in this dream. When it started, I felt more awake in my dream than I had in "reality" a few minutes earlier. Dazzling lucidity and simple purpose. I woke up for real after this dream and just kept smiling as I tried to fall back to sleep.