This image is a copyright Walt Disney Production

Wonderland Dream

I have to write about a recurring dream I had started having as a young child. I dreamed it several times and many times pondered it’s meaning. As I grew older and learned more, I managed to mingle through some meanings and decided a lot of the images were chaotic and disturbed by my inability to understand abstract thoughts at such an early age. It is an obvious dream to an adult. I am walking down the sidewalk on a very sunny day. I am three or four in my dream and I’m looking down at our feet. I’m watching my mom’s high heeled shoes, navy blue, walking next to my little white tennis shoes. I’m thinking that I wish I were big so I could wear shoes like my mom’s. We cross a street at a corner and step up the curb. I’m still holding my mom’s hand and walking looking at the ground and our feet, amazed by the patter and click and moving ground. My thoughts were disrupted by the flash of black fuzz shrieking across my feet. I looked to my left and there looking back at us like we were in its way, was a little black kitten. I was so excited I ran to the kitty. I wanted him. He took off, but then stopped, looked over it’s shoulder at me as if to say, "you’re too slow, catch up" and then took off as I tried to catch him again. It dashed between two houses in the bushes and I followed. I crawl through the scratchy branches laughing and determined. The menace charges through to the other side. I finally weed through to the back yard of this house and I find myself in a jungle. Everything around me changed, the foliage grew thick and plush and seductive. The noises changed from bustling traffic to birds and caws and croaks. The cat was ahead of me again and laughing back at me so I chase him again. I’m going down hill so fast, I can hardly stop. I run almost smack into this huge wise looking tree that looks to be an eternity years old. I stop of course, I can’t see the cat anywhere. At that point I realize that I cannot see my mom anymore either. I begin to get scared and I call for my mom. She is calling me too. I figure out that I can hear her, but she can’t hear me. I scream for her but she is still calling Tammy, come out of there. Where are you and she is calm. She can’t hear my scream. I look up and there is a man and a woman in the tree. The woman is feeding the man an apple. They are smiling and they don’t see or hear me either. A huge snake is spiraling up this giant tree and as soon as I see it I try to run. I turn to go back the way I thought I had come, but the brush and vines had grown so that it was like a wall a fortress keeping me back. I ran the other way as fast as I could away from the tree and the deaf people and the snake. I’m running and it’s getting dark and I’m tired. I scream for my mom. I yell and she can’t hear me. Suddenly this man is there. I don’t know where he came from. He has long fingers and is very skinny and sick looking. He has a black shirt and cape. He is wearing a black hat with a large brim. He is smiling and says honey, I’ll take you back to your mommy. Here take my hand and I’ll help you. At this point, I just want to go home. I reach for the hand that is stretched before me with boney wrinkled fingers and I almost grab it. I am halted by this large boom of thunder and lightening. A crash of noise and an overwhelming sobbing mans voice cries out "don’t do it. Don’t touch him! I am paralyzed. I want my mom. I want to go home. I can’t see this person talking to me and crying. I can see this man saying he wants to help me. It starts to rain. It is pouring rain. The man covers his head and says to me that he will be back someday and vanishes. The rain stops, the bushes disappear and I am standing next to my mom. I don’t know how I got back there and she asks me where was I for so long?

Thank you to the dreamer who sent this dream. Tammy Wildenborg is one of the most eloquent writers I have met. Her recollection and description of this dream is amazing. I am finding a richness in early childhood dreams. These appear to be dreams which most people describe as extremely vivid and are filled with mythology as well as family dynamics.