Tanessa Dreams

Kid art

2012-02-26T16:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted a blog in awhile, because I have busied myself with my son's blog. While he is five and barely capable of using a computer, he creates art like a man possessed. I wanted to give his work a home, other than the limited walls and oppressive boxes and suitcases where his art is stored. Another portion of his work is secretly recycled. He would be devastated to know this. Our project, tho, is teaching him how to discern the good from the bad.

A five-year old's dream

As a mother and former teacher, I'd like to note that I am a lover of all kid art, not just my son's. When I taught preschool, I became fascinated with my fearless art makers and hoped some child, any child would give me some of their work to take home.

In scanning and scanning my son's library of eyeballs, characters, games, ideas and obsessions, I found true inspiration. More than writing or reading, I wanted to comb through more work. With every picture, I saw an innocent creator, so free of fear than inhibits me daily. Don't get me wrong. This kid is critical of himself and has been prone to "art attacks" [a term we learned from Imagination Station's Mark Kistler. See video below]

My little one does not make art for the masses. He makes it mostly for the sake of making it. Sometimes, he makes it for a family member, a neighbor, the mailman or a friend. I'd like to be that kind of artist. No ego. Just joy!

Crazy Sexy dreamer Kris Carr

2012-02-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wellness warrior Kris Carr is "crazy, sexy" about whatever she puts her mind to. In addition to loving her body through her stage 4 cancer, she teaches others how to be happy, healthy beings. I am learning from Ms. Carr all the time.

Most recently, I took a closer look at the "Sleeping Beauty" section of her book, Crazy Sexy Diet. I love that her "diet" book has a section on sleep.

"While it's fun to have sex bathed in groovy light, you want to sleep in total darkness--light leaks affect pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin, the two chemicals that promote slumber."

I have been guilty of sleeping with the lights on lately. Since I wake in the middle of the night to nurse, I often use the light to read. But I decided to sacrifice the reading for total darkness. The baby and I are resting much better.

Carr offers other sleep tips such as using organic cotton pillows and bedding, putting plants in the room and going to sleep and rising at the same time each day.

The Animals Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood earworm

2012-02-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"

My roommate plays this song a lot, and it has become an earworm for me lately.

earworm: a piece of music that sticks in one's mind so that one seems to hear it, even when it is not being played. (Wikipedia)

Of all the songs I know and hear, I am not sure why this one gets stuck in my head. Or why the lyrics (as printed above) are the ones that keep repeating themselves in the middle of the night.

Girl Meets God by Lauren F. Winner

2012-02-13T04:58:00.000-08:00

Lauren Winner

Girl Meets God: On a Path to a Spiritual Life by Lauren F. Winner kept me up this early a.m. On page 19, LW makes two references to black people, a group I'm guessing will be limited to this page in her book. First, she says that a couple behind her at church holler amens like two black Baptists. In the very next paragraph, she says her boyfriend is all unnerved about the police, like a black high school student "in the dark of a Los Angeles night."

OK, I'm black and was raised Baptist. Even I can't make a blanket statement about people shouting in church. No one certainly shouted in the church I grew up in. They would have been asked to leave--or at least step out into the foyer. So maybe she is writing from a personal experience. I'll try to let it go.

The black high schooler? Well, I did not grow up in LA, but I went to college in California. I had some black friends who attended school in the area, in the time of Rodney King, and they did not seem particularly paranoid about the po-po! Maybe the author volunteered with high school kids in LA. So who am I to judge?

Still I was a bit turned off. Should I keep reading this? I thought. I wanted to enjoy this book. I like to think I am on a journey with the author. The author, for the duration of the book, any book, is my BFF. Frankly, my BFF was making me uncomfortable. And I was unclear why the editor of this book allowed her to say those things to me.

In most books I read, there is a reference to dreams. There is also an awkward moment where the author makes mention of a black person. It is usually irrelevant (to me) that they are black. But maybe it makes a difference, to the reader at large, to know this. I cringe but move on.

In most areas of my life, I am the minority. I normally don't want to discuss race. I prefer to blend in, rather than bring attention to the little annoying things that people say. Even when I shared "Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls" video with my sister on FB, I ended up getting unfriended by a white friend (at least that's my theory why she unfriended both my sister and me around that time). Anderson Cooper posted it first, and I thought it was funny, because I had heard a lot of those things (I also used to have a blonde wig and call myself Zsa Zsa when I wore it).

Since I am still early in the book, I feel like LW can redeem herself. My interest in spirituality, as well as journeys, outshines my feelings about page 19. Besides, LW discusses a dream of being rescued by Jesus in the first chapter! I'm just kind of upset our friendship is starting so rocky. And LW kept me up thinking about all this. More coffee, please.

When will my baby sleep through the night?

2012-02-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

My baby is three months old and does not sleep through the night. He wakes up at 4 or 5 every morning, as Amy Spangler suggests in her book, Breastfeeding: Keep it Simple. He is alert and ready to get on with his day, so I usually do not return to sleep.

I change a diaper, go to the bathroom, read a book, smile. I secretly enjoy this time. The quiet. The stillness. The blue glow of morning, sneaking up on me. Eventually, I return to sleep. When I wake up at 10, I am still tired.

I have yet to master "sleep when the baby sleeps." Like Spangler says, I simply need to change my idea of night!

For more baby tips, visit http://babygooroo.com/.

Moby wrap baby belly laugh dream

2012-02-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

A good friend bought me one of these Moby wraps. I was afraid of trying it, at first, because it seems to be just this extremely long piece of cloth. It was up to me to create the wrap, and I did not trust that I could craft something secure enough for my baby.

But I finally got the courage to master this thing. I must say, it is extremely comfortable. There is no back pain, and we are practically skin to skin. One of our first experiences together was that the baby fell asleep. In his dream/sleep, he started to laugh. Not only did I witness his first laugh, I felt it. It was a magical, beautiful experience!

Amsterdam dream

2012-02-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

When I was 21, I spent a semester of college in England. Ever since, my dreams have been laced with travel adventures. This story excerpt happened on a side trip to Amsterdam.

We went back to the coffee shop one last time. I met this wonderful kid (19) from Liverpool, who was spending a year traveling. He thought travel would be the key to finding himself. "No one is on this trip except for me," he said.

Before we left we all signed our names on the wall. I wrote, "I had a dream I had dreadlocks," which was a true statement.

Paula White on God and sleep

2012-02-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

"Sleep is God's method for restoring the tissues and organs of your body, and for bringing closure to things in your mind so you can be more creative and see solutions to life's problems with clarity."

Paula White, life coach

Move On, Move Up: Turn Yesterday's Trials into Today's Triumphs

Gospel of Mary

2012-02-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

The antidote to last night's insomnia was a reading of the Gospel of Mary (read text here). I had never seen this lost gospel and found it pretty mind-blowing. As I drifted back to sleep, I was sure I would have some heavenly dreams. Instead, I had a hellish nightmare, followed by a bout of sleep paralysis. I woke up wondering what exactly the dream was trying to tell me. Usually, I understand a dream immediately. This time, I was rather confused and still am.

Mary Magdalene by Pietro Perugino

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, the things which you know that we don't because we haven't heard them."

Mary responded, "I will teach you about what is hidden from you." And she began to speak these words to them.

She said, "I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to him, 'Lord, I saw you today in a vision.'
He answered me, 'How wonderful you are for not wavering at seeing me! For where the mind is, there is the treasure.'

Snow upon waking

2012-02-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture I took through the window a couple weeks ago. It is the snowfall I discovered upon waking.

I love how snow falls so quietly. We can sleep through the night and have no idea that the world outside is changing.

The camera on my phone works best in bright sunlight. This hardly captures the beauty of the snow or the stillness of being in it.

Bad Credit, but Good Vibes dreamer

2012-02-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

In this June 2011 New York Times piece by Jed Lipinski, Joan Baker shares how she uses her extrasensory skills to predict whether someone will be a reliable tenant.

Paul Taggart for The New York Time

from the article:

She said she was descended from a line of Cajun “dreamers,” an expression she uses to describe people who have eerily prophetic dreams.

I tried to search for more information on Cajun "dreamers," with no such luck. If you have any insight or information, please share.

Aretha Franklin And Smokey Robinson, Don Cornelius

2012-02-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Rest in Peace, Don Cornelius. I'll miss that voice, smooth and deep. Thanks to you, I dance like a Soul Train dancer in my dreams.

Here, Cornelius interviews Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson, followed by a duet of "Ooo Baby Baby."

Bible Dictionary Concordance dream

2012-02-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

World Bible Publishers

...from the section "Young Reader's Dictionary-Concordance for the King James Version of the Holy Bible," gifted to me by my parents on my 8th birthday.

What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen

2012-01-31T13:08:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, I told a therapist that my favorite genre of books was woman-who-goes-on-a-journey. What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen was such a book, read months ago, and I planned to blog about it. Somehow, it has remained a draft, empty except for this video clip.

So while the story is no longer fresh in my mind, I recall the feeling the book gave me. I felt like I was on a journey with AEC, as she tells her story. She writes about being 44 and discovering that her medical mystery is actually an unexpected pregnancy.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Here is an excerpt from Chapter One

which mentions a recurring dream

This was going to be a solo show. That's what I do. I write and perform solo plays. Dramatic tales with multiple characters, for adults. Comic plays and folktales, for children. I've performed for half a million people, in tiny theaters and high- tech performance spaces, in international theater festivals and school cafeterias, on four continents.

I rarely get stage fright. But the thought of performing this story in front of an audience was like willingly entering my recurrent dream— the one where I am standing under a blinding spotlight on a rickety proscenium stage. I face the audience, open my mouth to speak, and realize: 1) I can't remember my lines; 2) There is a marching band entering the theater; 3) I'm naked. Shouting over the brass section, I stammer and blurt out improvisations, hoping my lines will come back to me before the audience showers me with rotten vegetables, but the band drowns me out. As they approach the stage, I see that the musicians are wild animals in military dress. I wake in a sweat.

Watch Tower Jehovah's Witness dream tract

2012-01-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

Someone delivered this little Watch Tower tract to the house months ago.

It discusses and illustrates a prophetic dream recorded by Daniel, my favorite Bible "character." He was a vegetarian, and he interpreted dreams.

"Why should you be interested in that dream?" it asks. I was kind of curious and almost attended the local Jehovah's Witness meeting. But I think I went out of town.

Bacon cupcakes dream

2012-01-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

As the bacon sizzles, I ask, "What are you making?"

"Cupcakes," she answers.

Maple French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes
as seen in my dream

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Wovoka's vision

2012-01-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

A recurring dream runs through the film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and I did not even notice. I found another part of this film compelling, even mind blowing. The prophet Wovoka, a side note in this film, shares his visions with his people to offer hope in their dire situation. He uses signs as he speaks, a universal language of sorts for the various tribes present.

While this movie depicts a sad chapter in American history, it shows some of the richness and beauty in Native American life.

Awake and Asleep: Musical Dreams with Oliver Sacks

2012-01-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

Late last night, my husband, browsing through his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, stumbled upon a chapter about dreams. I joked that I would have to interview him once he read the chapter. The reality is, I was too anxious to read what Sacks wrote. I devoured the chapter just moments ago, then took a break for coffee and ginger cookies. Ahhhh....

If you have not heard of Oliver Sacks, he is the guy who wrote the book-turned-movie Awakenings, about his own experience as a doctor in the 1960s. I've never read any of his books, tho I picked up an article on his work at a teacher conference once.

Chapter 23 Awake and Asleep: Musical Dreams

In Musicophilia, Sacks gives examples of well-known composers unearthing songs in their dreams. He also shares his own dream experiences. Sacks maintains that many musicians vividly experience music after they awaken from their dreams. This is probably due to the fact that music is the same in our dreams as it is in waking life. In other words, music in dreams does not become distorted and require interpretation like most dreams. It is what it is.

"Why are musical dreams so literal, so faithful to reality?" Sacks asks. He continues to ponder, quoting Irving J. Massey--

Is it because music has "a formal contour and inner momentum--a purpose of its own"? Or is it that music has a special cerebral organization of its own, is "served by different...processes from those associated with image, a language and narrative, and so may not be subject to the same amnestic forces as these"?

Here is a video where Dr. Sacks discusses hallucinations and sleep.

Paint with water sleeper picture

2012-01-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

These paint with water books were so fun as as child. I found one for my son at a thrift store. Turns out I was more into making the paint come alive than he was.

Kids are supposed to make their own art anyway. Still, the artwork and poems are cute. "Time to put on my sleeper."

The Maoris of New Zealand

2012-01-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

From Eerdmans' Handbook to the World's Religions, 1994

Part 3, The Primal Religions

Case-Study 7: The Maoris of New Zealand by James Irwin

Saved

Ritchie Valens' La Bamba dreams

2012-01-23T16:54:00.000-08:00

La Bamba is a movie classic, one I grew up watching with my sisters and loving. But, I recently wondered if the recurring dreams of rock legend Ritchie Valens were real? A quick online search brought me to Ritchievalens.com, a website run by the late singer's family. According to the Frequently Asked Questions, Ritchie did not wear a talisman, as portrayed in the movie. He did not fear flying. But he did recall dreams.

Brother Mario's bio says, "Mario remembers his mother telling him of Ritchie’s dreams, how Ritchie would describe the dreams to her and then write a song about them."

"To live is to sleep, to die is to awaken."

While the Tijuana trip of the movie happened (see above clip. Gotta love Bob), it was more of a family trip than a spiritual journey. But the message is strong, one I contemplate on a regular basis.

Sleep Talkin' Man

2012-01-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

Though I've known about the Sleep Talkin' Man for awhile, I haven't given it much thought. It was funny, at first, to hear the audio recordings of a sleeping man. Then, it started to feel fake. Day after day, I listened the comedy stylings of Adam in his dreams, which he does not remember, by the way.

According to our friends at Wikipedia, 4% of adults talk in their sleep. That makes Adam a kind of novelty.

Wife Karen says her feelings are hurt when the authenticity of Sleep Talkin' Man is questioned. I am sorry I doubted it, Karen. It just sounds too good to be true!

Listen to STM classics here.

Joseph King of Dreams

2012-01-21T21:02:00.000-08:00

Considering that I don't generally watch cartoons--and fell asleep during a theatrical production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat--it is amazing that I sat through Joseph King of Dreams. But this cartoon is short and tells the story of the famous dream interpreter from the Book of Genesis.

The dream scenes are distinct, colorful and, at times, surreal.

The dream sequences in this film are colorful and, at times, surreal. I least enjoyed the songs, tho they, at least, moved the story along. Still, I prefer musical numbers live on stage, even while I sleep.

The kings of the Bible seemed to like their dreams interpreted. I can't imagine any leader today seeking council on dreams or basing any decisions on them.

Piers Morgan dream

2012-01-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to de-clutter my life, I am reading (in order to recycle) magazines. I found a lengthy article in New York magazine on Piers Morgan, who took over Larry King's spot, a year ago, on CNN. And I thought PM was just a reality TV judge.

In the article, "Piers Morgan Isn't Sleeping Well," by Benjamin Wallace, we learn why PM turns to wine to deal with his recurring dreams. He describes dreams where he is engulfed by waves, his teeth fall out or he has trouble reading a teleprompter. In every case, it seems, the dreams relate to work.

"I never understood what they meant at all," Morgan tells Wallace. The author describes them as anxiety dreams more than once.

The article explores all the stresses that have made up PM's career, both in tabloid journalism and TV. While his dreams have him waking up in cold sweats, he does not seem focused on making them go away. He'll take wine over therapy.

I don't think he would need "25 hours of sessions," as he states in the article. He just needs to find some strategies to deal with stress in his day to day life.

I'm Only Sleeping by the Beatles

2012-01-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

A Facebook friend shared this video today. I have never met this woman and know little about her, other than her daily posts.

The other night, this friend showed up in a dream. I don't remember the dream at all, only that she was in it.

Thank you, stranger, friend.