"...Perchance to Dream..." / The Nocternal Meanderings Of Grainne And Siobhan

 "To Sleep: Perchance to Dream: Ay, that is the rub:"

                                                              ----William Shakespeare, Hamlet

In our own ways, Siobhan and I are as strange as the rest of our family.  Some would say we are stranger. We have quirks, oddities, and eccentricities like the rest, but the strangest thing about us is our dreams...         

                                                                                   I see dead people--but only while I sleep. (Laugh if you will, but it's not as far-fetched as a Ouji Board.)  I have always had dreams where dead friends and family made nocturnal visits...    

 In one dream, my grandmother walked into my bedroom four months after she had passed away.  Grandma Rose was as elegant as ever-- grey hair perfectly coiffed, dressed in linen and pearls... She primly sat in the ladder-back chair by my bed, with her big straw purse planted firmly on her knees.  In a sad voice she asked "How is your mother?"   (Mama was alone with Grandma Rose when she died, and in truth she was having a hard time getting past it.)  I told her Mama still seemed lost, and she replied "Help her."  As she rose from the chair to leave,  Grandma said "I have to go now--I expect they'll let me come back a few more times."  And with her purse on her arm, she walked out of my dream...


                                                                                                                                                              

 In another dream, my best friend Clarissa walked into my living room a month after she had died from cancer.  Clarissa was much the same in death as she had been in life--a 5' whirlwind in faded jeans, an old tee shirt, and a pair of neon tennis shoes. Like always, her short blond hair was sticking out at all angles from raking her fingers through it.  (I suppose old habits die hard, even when you're dead.)  She flopped down on my sofa, threw both feet on my coffee table so she could admire her shoes, and said "I'm sorry, Grainne,  but it was time to go...I wasn't getting any better, and the hospital bills were piling up.   It was just time... And I gotta go now--I'll see you later!"  With a grin, she jumped up and waltzed out just as she had waltzed in, snatching a handful of  Siobhan's M & M's on her way out the door...When I awoke, the sun was shining through my window, and I knew that somewhere Clarissa was smiling...


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Siobhan's dreams are different.
  She doesn't see dead people--
 Siobhan dreams of dead horses.
 Our horses. 
 All of the horses
 that we have ever loved and lost come to her
 in her dreams... 
Siobhan sees them in our pastures, the Dead peacefully grazing side-by-side with the Living. 
And she rejoices...
                             
                                         



 It is perfectly normal in our house for Siobhan to look across the breakfast table and quite cheerfully say "Don't worry about Isabella anymore, Mum...I saw her in the pasture last night with Salvatore, and she's fine.  (Isabella passed away recently, and we lost sweet Salvatore a year ago.)
                                                 
Or to say "Mum, I saw Angelique, HeartsAfire, and Odette last night. They're still grazing in the back pasture..."(Angelique, HeartsAfire, and Odette passed away years ago.)

A lot of people might find our conversations strange, and our beliefs hard to accept...but  I think of all the times I have heard horses' hooves in the night, when no horse was there.  I think of all the times I've heard a horse whinny in the darkness, when our horses were all tucked safely in the barn. And I wonder...

 I believe what Siobhan sees in her dreams is real--the spirits of our dead horses ARE still here, standing contentedly in the pastures or grazing companionably with their old friends.  And strange as it may seem, we find their ghostly presence comforting.

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Siobhan sees more than dead horses in her dreams--she sees the future,
 as well...

Siobhan once dreamed her cousin
Tia conceived and gave birth to twins. ( 14 months later, she did.)

Five years passed, and Siobhan again dreamed that Tia was in the family way.  ( One month later,
Tia called to confirm what we already knew. )
 
  Recently Siobhan dreamed a red fox ran across our yard; two days later, we saw a red fox run through our garden.  (Red foxes are not real common around here.  This one was only the 2nd red fox seen on our property in 24 years.)


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Siobhan and I both have dream re-runs, which most people find strange.  One particular dream I have had five times during my lifetime; some of  Siobhan's re-runs are more frequent than that.  The funny thing is that the re-run dream is always exactly as before; we know what comes next in the dream but we can't stop it from happening. The ending is always the same...

 One night recently,  Siobhan and I  had the same dream on the same night.  I dreamed we were at the circus with our farrier; Siobhan dreamed we were at the circus and saw our farrier in the crowd.  Not exactly the same dream, but close enough that even WE thought it was strange...


                                                                                                    
                           


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                                       "If we shadows have offended,

                                       Think but this and all is mended, 

                                       That you have but slumbered here
                                          While these visions did appear."

                                                —William Shakespeare, the opening of Puck's epilogue.

                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                          

 


 

 
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