Beautiful Dreams, Beautiful Moments

These are just some of the really beautiful dreams that I’ve had:

**Soon after my brother-in-law Eric passed away from a rare neurological disease (which left him so incapacitated that he had to spend the last year of his life in a nursing home), I had a dream about him. In this dream the whole family was up at Eric & Barbara’s log cabin in Connecticut (Eric and his wife used to host an annual family reunion for us, the whole family would come and pitch tents for the weekend and camp out on the big property they had). Anyway in the dream we were at this property, it was a beautiful day, and I was standing next to Eric’s wife Barbara, all of a sudden Eric was walking towards us with a beautiful young woman. Eric really looked beautiful too and much younger than his fifty years, and he was tall and straight. Barbara was so surprised and happy to see him and she gave him a hug and he introduced the woman that was with him to her. I hadn’t heard who she was so I asked Barbara and she said to me, “It’s Mary, it’s the Blessed Mother, Eric knew you were a Catholic and he thought you’d be happy to see her so he brought her along.” And then there was a race starting and Eric was running in it and Barbara said, “Look, he’s running! Eric is running again!” And I looked over at Mary and she was smiling at me, and then we all just turned to watch Eric running down the hill. I woke up with such a wonderful feeling of peace.

**I had another dream about Eric not long after that. He and his wife were visiting at our house, it was a big party and all the relatives were here. Eric and Barbara were leaving for home but Eric wanted us to come outside to see a table that he had. It was a very small, tiny table, like a little bistro table for two, but then he showed us how it could expand, long enough to fit the whole family. And then he said that one day soon we’d all be sitting around that table together again.

**Just a few days before my Uncle Tom passed away I had a dream about him. At the time of this dream he was in the hospital and he had just been operated on for a blood clot to the brain, he was doing well after the operation and he was supposed to be transferred in a few days to a nursing home for rehabilitation. My dream told me otherwise though. I had a dream that Uncle Tom was standing in my kitchen and he looked so good, and he was smiling and laughing, and I asked him how he was, and he just looked down at a key he was holding in his hand, and he shook his head no. I said to him, “But you look so good”, and in my dream he did look so good, he looked beautiful. I remember telling my sister-in-law Ann that his eyes were shining, and that the only way I could really describe him was to say that “He looked like love”, and he really did look to me like what love would look like if you could see it, and there was such beautiful light all around him and emanating from him. But in my dream he just kept shaking his head no, I asked him if my Aunt Florence (his wife) knew that he wasn’t going to get better, and he shook his head no with a sad little smile on his face. And then in my dream I heard a commotion in the backyard and it was some of my kindergarten kids (I was a teacher’s aide at the time) fighting with each other outside, Uncle Tom was standing in front of the door so I took him by the hands and led him over to the other side of the kitchen and I told him to stay right there and I’d be right back, he looked down again and smiled, I went out back to take care of the kids and then I woke up. And I just knew that Uncle Tom was not going to get better. A few days later my Uncle Tom passed away.
Did he know he was leaving this earth? Did he come to say good-bye to me? I’d like to think so.

I have many dreams about my Mom and my Dad and other loved ones who have passed on, it makes me feel close to them when I dream of them, and I like to think of these dreams as my loved ones coming to visit.





Okay, so how did we do on the Weekend Forecast?

Well, since the weather called for ‘maybe thunder storms’ we decided not to drive all the way upstate to go fishing. But Ray and his brother Donald did go fishing off the beach, they left very early in the morning and I decided to sleep in. Wonderful!
I had started some cleaning/organizing projects on Friday and kept it up on Saturday. There is still so much to do, but I’m happy with things so far and I’m proud of myself for actually getting rid of some clutter rather than just moving it all to another spot in the house! But it’s so time-consuming! Oh well, little by little.
And I baked both Diana’s (Welcome To My World blog) peanut butter & jelly cake and a batch of her potato chip cookies!
So the fishing for Ray was Mission Accomplished! (although they didn’t catch any fish, Ray says he’s the jinx because when Donald fishes alone he always catches something! But they both said they had a lot of fun and they said it was good for me that I didn’t come along, it was very foggy and I do not like the fog on the water at all! I only like the beach when it’s nice and sunny!)
So while I didn’t go fishing, I had the added bonus of accomplishing some things around the house!

And on Sunday we did get to the Garden Center early and then on to the cemetery to plant flowers. We cleaned up four of the gravesites and Ray planted all the flowers, and I was so happy that both my sisters met us there! I know this is going to sound crazy but I actually like the cemetery, it’s peaceful, and the grounds are beautiful, it’s a park-like setting, and I especially love looking at the gravestones in the older part of the cemetery. I don’t feel any closer at all to loved ones that are buried there, it's among the living that I feel connected to those that have passed not among the dead in the cemetery, so that is not the attraction for me, I do try to respect the gravesites of those that have passed in my family though because that was so important to my Mom, so we try to keep them up, but I don’t feel any connection to the loved ones there. But I don’t mind at all going to the cemetery either, it’s quiet and I find it very relaxing there. And we had perfect weather on Sunday for planting there, not a cloud in the sky, the temperature was perfect, and there was a nice breeze.
Then later in the afternoon the kids all came over and both my sisters and their families came too, Ray barbequed and my brother-in-law Steve made us delicious meatballs, and he also baked some of my favorite chocolate cookies for dessert, and we all had a lot of fun. And everyone loved Diana’s desserts! I had a really nice Mother’s Day!
So Sunday was definitely Mission Accomplished!

Here are some memories my family helped to create for me this Mother’s Day

My daughter-in-law Lori & Mia:

Here I sit with my most cherished on my lap:

Lori & Mia, Grandma, Katie & Jayden:

Marybeth, Eileen, Diane:

My sister Marybeth with her daughter Rachel:

Rachel:

William & Andrew (looking like twins with their 'beatnik' beards! Does anyone else remember beatniks? The kids have no idea what I'm talking about when I say that!):

Donald & Ellie (dressing like twins!):

Diana’s peanut butter & jelly cake decorated for Mother’s Day (thank you, Diana!):



We never think to get a picture of Ray, myself, kids & grandkids all together when we are dressed nice for special occasions, so here you have us at one of our usual ‘come as you are’ get-togethers, don’t we look like such a motley crew?