After waking up to a particularly vivid dream this morning, I realized I have never included dreams in my journal or blog. I think it is time to change that. The segment will be called Dream Time and eventually I will come up with a better graphic.

Last night was a night of nostalgia and of remembering things forgotten. The dream brought back not only one of my best friends ever, but a long-forgotten house and backyard.

I dreamt that my good buddy Sam was still alive and that I was in the back yard playing with him. I am not sure what prompted the dream or if it was anything in particular, but I did realize recently that it has been just over a year since I lost Samson. I was stunned at how long it has been already and surprised that I still missed him so much.

In the dream, Sam and I were playing around in the grass, and just generally hanging out. I remember thinking that I should appreciate what time I have with him although in the dream I had no knowledge of what had happened in real life. We ran around the yard, I hugged him profusely and we both collapsed in the grass when out of breath. As I lay there petting him, something cool happened.

The backyard became the backyard from thousands of dreams before and the house came into focus as another regular feature of countless sleep sessions. This was the same backyard I had seen ONLY in my dreams for years and the house too was a product of previous dreams ONLY. I am not sure if I am explaining it well, but these were NOT real places, but regular settings in literally thousands of my dreams.

So whats the big deal about often dreaming with the same fictional settings? Not much, except for the fact that it had been over a year since either had appear during my sleep and they both appeared last night. I had forgotten completely about those settings that had filled my sleep so many times before, and it was comforting to see them and experience them again. I mean come on, I was with Sam at his peak of health, in a place (albeit fictional) that had been the setting of tons of great dreams. I woke up and gave Lou a hug and a kiss wearing a big smile on my face.