I seldom remember what I dream overnight, which is probably a blessing as I’d probably waste a lot of time trying to figure out the hidden meaning in my dreams.
The dreams I tend to remember though are of the recurrent type. The same idea over and over, although, obviously, the details vary a bit.
Over the years, the recurrent theme has changed in accordance to the shift in my preoccupations. A traumatic situation that I found disturbing at 20 no longer meant anything at 30. Things had changed. For instance, throughout my 30s I was plagued by the nightmare of being stuck/lost in an unfamiliar part of town unable to get to my daughter. Part of me was probably still adjusting to the responsibility of caring for a young child, but there was also a very practical side to my dream - the day to day struggle of making my way across town in time to pick up the kid from kindergarten or school.
I no longer dream about that, but for some years now I’ve been having this dream about a bigger house. I don’t have a secret wish to buy a bigger/better house, I don’t want a mansion and a pool and, in fact, it’s never a big or extraordinary house I dream about. Most of the times it’s just one extra room, maybe a secret door leading to this room I never knew about.
Naturally, old Freud shakes his head, because he’s already bored with this dream. (The Freud in my head is easily annoyed with dreams that are too obvious and you don’t need a leading psychoanalyst to interpret them…)
The curious part is that, in my language, we don’t have an equivalent for a phrase like ‘give me some room’…
If you ask me right now what I’d like I’d say something like I need a break from all the problems currently bothering me… which, in some way, might translate as needing some space…
Still, what triggered this dream last night? It’s not like anything major happened over the past few days to enter my subconscious… I’ve been stuck in the same place/situation for many months now…
I don’t know, there’s no conclusion to this post… and no extra room in sight…
Do you have recurrent dreams? And if you do, do you know what they mean?