Crazy Dream: Travel, Writing, Place & How My Brain Tries to Work It All Out

This morning I dreamed I was back in Shanghai emceeing a writing event at a club. The event? A quiz of sorts about the ranch I lived on in New Mexico back in the late 1990s.

There I was in China facing a big crowd of expectant writers trying to remember all the details of the NM ranch. I had a list of places on the ranch (Castle Rock, Costilla, Crazy Woman Creek, etc.) that I had to describe in luscious detail in order to "win" the writing event.

Then suddenly, I was no longer in the club in Shanghai; the audience was gone (poof); and I was in a truck on the ranch (still gripping the writing "quiz" in my hand).

Whoa.

Time travel.

Life travel.

My lovely (jetlagged) subconscious working like hell to stitch it all together into some semblance of order. (Good luck, brain.)

For a while in the dream, I drove through the mountains, sighed when I saw the glacier lakes, got a little woozy in the switchbacks, and waxed nostalgic. I think I even had an altitude headache. God, I loved this ranch when I lived there...what I discovered about myself on this ranch...and yes, I still love this ranch and New Mexico in general.

Then whoosh! I was back in that Shanghai club with my audience. They were cheering. I must have been doing well on the quiz.

Whoop! Whoop!

Then back on the ranch...on a mountain peak overlooking the vega. I saw two bears, a herd of elk, and an eagle.

Then zwoop! In da club in Shanghai...writing furiously, reading to the audience, showing slides of a wild stallion I ran into on a hike on time, guiding them on a virtual tour of the ranch.

It was exhilarating.

And exhausting.

When I woke, I was longing...for New Mexico...for China...for the kind of comfort I feel when I'm home (like now) in the U.S. eating ice cream sandwiches and Oreo cookies.

My first "thought" after the dream?

I have had and continue to have a pretty cool life. I'm a writer inspired by place and wow...I've lived in some amazing places.

My next "thought"?

I don't dream this way when I'm in China. I've had vivid dreams all my life, but I don't often dream in China. What does that mean? Why is this?

And my last "thought" before my two-year-old hollered "Mumma!" from the next room?

I need to write.

______

Thanks to Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the mountain photo.

Comments

[Casey Freeland]

Will you have the opportunity to go to NM while you are here? I'm very curious about the dream patterns in this country and abroad. What's up with that? Why does it happen? Is it a national trend or is it the result of being a white girl in a non-white society. That research would make for an excellent post.

Take care and dream on!

Casey

[Lisa]

It sounds like a wonderful dream....and an exciting life. What took you to New Mexico and then Shanghai?

Lisa

[Kristin Bair O'Keeffe]

Hey Casey,

Good questions. I'm going to check with Chinese friends in Shanghai about dreams. I, too, am a little obsessed with dreams/dreaming/etc. Will post when I've got some info.

Cheers.

[Kristin Bair O'Keeffe]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for reading. I went to the ranch to make time to write and to run a wee fishing/hunting lodge at 10,000 feet. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

4.5 years ago my husband's job took us to Shanghai. Again, another wonderful opportunity to explore a new part of the world & write.

Kristin

[Claire Anderson]

That is the most vivid dream I have ever read. Nice work. I felt like I was taken to those places too. I wish I can write my dreams like that. Maybe I should start writing my dreams. I think it is a good practice as well. Thanks for inspiring me again to write and to travel.