My Dream

Last night I had a dream. One of those vivid dreams that appear in techno color, and when you emerge from a deep sleep, the dream is still all there. You can see people’s faces with the names still attached. This vivid dream might have something to do with inhaling a couple of puffs of pot from my vape pen I keep next to my bed.

I was sitting on the sandy beach with a group of people who’s faces I didn’t quite recognize in my dream. They were trying to distract me from something. I knew that much. Something was brewing. Then I turned around, and many people descended on a narrow path toward us. They all wore black ski jackets with a red stripe across the chest with SQUAW VALLEY imprinted in bold white letters. Another red stripe was on the right sleeve of the jacket. The word INSTRUCTOR printed on that. The faces were coming into focus, and I started to recognize them all—smooth, young, ski goggle line imprinted faces, tanned by too much sun exposure. Bright, mischievous smiles of friends surrounded me on the beach. We were all laughing and hugging (remember those days when we still hugged?) It was a surprise birthday party with friends from a long time ago. In my dream, my friends looked young. In reality, we have all aged, and some of these friends are not with us.

“Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been”

-Jimmy Buffet”

I woke up to the sound of the waves washing onto the sandy beach below our palapa. The sunrise colors were the shades of deep reds and oranges splashed across the water’s edge. The silhouettes of elephant trees imprinted against the fiery red morning sky showed up in my vision every time I opened my eyes. The birds started chirping. First one, then hundreds joined in. My head was resting in the crook of my still snoring husband’s arm. He was like a trumpet accompanying the symphony of the birds. Now I was lying half-awake, emerging from my dreams and the faces kept coming. The faces of my friends and people I’ve met throughout my life. It might have something to do with my birthday I had yesterday. I was looking back at my life, another year gone. I’ve collected quite a few of them by now.

Over the years, people come and go in our lives. I was thinking about the fact of how I am leaving a dream. I was thinking about how truly fortunate I am to have so many beautiful people in my life, whom I love and who love me. Yesterday on my 57th birthday, my day started with coffee and a cookie delivered by my husband to bed. Lovely, wouldn’t you say? A few minutes later, after he opened his computer, I heard:

” Oh, happy birthday, sweetheart.”

The power of Facebook. Yes, Facebook had to remind him it was my birthday.

We can discuss the whole social media phenomenon, but it sure was nice to talk to so many of you exactly because of it. We were connected. I got to talk with my parents on FaceTime. How incredible is that! How lucky am I to still have my parents alive and well, seeing their smiling and often frozen faces on the screen: “Can you hear me?” is the most common sentence I hear my mother yelling into the screen, but that doesn’t matter. Someday I know I will miss that very sentence. Sitting in a reclining chair overlooking the ocean, I got to talk with my brother and his wife via the Messenger app. He is oceans away, yet he was right there with me.

Jim and I took off on a bikeride into the hills behind our house. I won’t even tell you how great the trails are here. We want to keep them a secret. While climbing, I was listening to my own book through an App called VoiceDream, which reads back your own writing in whatever language and voice you choose. I chose Samantha, a silky smooth British voice, which makes my writing sound very sophisticated. As I was immersed in the climbing and listening to my own story ( I do that to hear the flow, listen for sentence structure, words which repeat too often), my phone rang through WhatsApp Application, and it was my friend from Israel. Now, how incredible is that. I am riding a bike in the desert mountains of Baja, and I am talking with my friend on my headphones connected to my iPhone. Again, he is oceans away, yet right here.

I know you can make an argument that we are plugged into all this technology too much. ( later, when I was wingfoiling on the water, I was free of all technology. Just me, the wind and the waves) In so many ways, you are right, but you can make an argument in favor of the technology as well. It connects us with friends and family worldwide, and for that, I am grateful.

Winging Unplugged

I am saying to you all: THANK YOU for your birthday wishes. I feel the LOVE from you, and I am sending LOVE back as I sip my coffee, eat my cookie, listen to the waves and watch the birds hopping from branch to branch right in front of my bed.

Paradise

Just how lucky can a person be?