I Dream of Italy

Some ideas and feelings and dreams are so personal it is scary to share them.  Maybe because I fear they won't be handled with the tender feelings they are felt about inside me.  However, I think sharing is one of the best things I can do with my time on earth and I love people so I will tell you about my dreams :)

I've had a few vivid dreams lately but the one with the most lasting impact was my dream of Italy.  Now at the time, I wasn't thinking "gee, I'm in Italy."  I was simply feeling a lot of happiness and enjoying my life.  In particular the day of my dream we had been driving through steep mountain countryside, in the green valley and traveled to a couple of different friends' houses.  We enjoyed time with these friends, I spent some time discussing private things in a bedroom with a close friend, but also playing with and hanging out with their whole family in their living room.  Later we were back at the townhouse type place we lived and I ran over to a neighbor's house to borrow something.

What gripped me in that dream was two feelings:  1.  That I was loved and happy and 2.  That we needed each other - those of us that were my friends in that foreign land.  There was nothing particular about the culture or where we were I just knew the whole time it was Italy.  I have no idea where that came from because I haven't really had any desire to go anywhere foreign, and I've never traveled off this continent.  I really do not know where it came from.  But the feelings it invoked haven't gone away so I've been doing more reading about Italy and especially looking at pictures.  When I see scenery like what was in my dream it makes my heart leap.  I thought I'd post a few of the photos I found online that resemble what I dreamed about.

One funny thing is I didn't know there were mountainous parts of Italy.  All I had seen are seaside resorts so I guess I just assumed there wasn't mountains.  My dream made me curious if the beautiful scenery really existed, so I've read about the dolomites.  I learned some new geography but I also gained more curiosity and attention to the bigger world out there.  I often get discouraged about the little struggles I have here in this area, in this stage of my life and it was nice for dreamland to transport me somewhere else.  Only in one other instance have I looked at something and felt a heart-pounding realization that I knew it before and it was a big part of my life somehow and it was nice to have that spiritual connection again.