Dream as Time Machine and Wish Granter

Dreams take us back to the past and into the future. They can help us resolve past issues and guide us in moving forward in our lives. Dreams can grant our wishes.

My kids are not kids anymore—they are in their mid-20s. No one quite prepared me for the grief of losing them to their adulthood. Unfortunately, when my children were young, I didn’t heed the elders’ advice when they told me to “cherish each day because before you know it, they will be grown and gone living their own lives.” Like other parents, I sometimes struggled to figure out how to juggle it all and so often wasn’t fully present to my kids in the moment.

This is only one of the many mistakes I made as a parent. Now that my kids are grown, I look back and say “I wish” to many things. I wish I had been more present, more patient, more fun…. The list goes on. And I have recently said, “I wish I could go back in time and have one day with my kids when they were young.” I would have taken any day, even when my daughter, Emma, was in her most challenging teenage years.

I hadn’t appreciated that a dream would fulfill my wish.

Last night, I dreamt of pushing my son, Danny, around in his stroller. He was a toddler—possibly 2 or 3 years old. I was frustrated as I couldn’t get us back to our hotel room, but it didn’t matter. We just had a good time, laughing and running around together. We were both so happy. The dream felt like it was happening in real life. As I woke from the dream, I heard a voice say, “You asked for a chance to go back in time with your children, and I gave it to you.” I woke up grateful for that dream and for whoever gave me that dream (and I hope they will provide me with one with Emma (ideally not in her teenage years, but I will take whatever they want to give me). I would like to know who delivered that dream to me—what was the source?

Maybe the dream didn’t really take me back in time, but it did give me a chance to revisit that time in my life in a profound way, potentially healing it for me and, with any luck, for my son.

Interestingly, my husband also traveled back in time last night when he dreamt he had coffee with his mom, who is currently wrestling (in real life) with dementia. In the dream, he could speak with and interact with her like she was many years ago when her memory was fully intact. The dream brought her back some wonderful (and much-needed) reminders of her.

Our dreams provided a nice trip down memory lane, but they also gave us something more than that. Although the interactions were in the dream world, they impacted us as if they had happened in real life, deepening our relationships with our loved ones and potentially working some healing magic.

I hadn’t thought about asking my dreams to grant “wishes” but I will ask the dream world genie to do so.