Friday Five: "Beautiful Dreamer" Edition

This week's RevGalBlogPals Friday Five sends us to Dreamland -- our own!

1. Do you tend to daydream?
Sometimes I think that's my usual state of consciousness.


2. Do you usually remember your night dreams? Do you find them symbolic and meaningful or just quirky?

I used to remember them almost every night, quite vividly...went through a patch, during my last employment, when they came few and far between...now seem to remember more of them again. I have had some dreams in my life that were indeed very meaningful to me whether metaphorically or in a very direct, smack-upside-the-head way. And others -- well, I chalk up last night's dream, in which I found myself tasked with driving part of a multi-unit float in a Presidential motorcade, to eating kale chips at suppertime. Sometimes a cigar is just a bad burrito.

3. Have you ever had a life changing dream which you'll never forget?

Oh, yes. I once dreamed that I was being embraced by God -- it was not only a visual dream but a tactile one. It was during a time in my life when I didn't feel particularly spiritual or connected to God; it seemed to come out of nowhere. I will always remember that. (And how does God feel? some of you may be asking. It's really hard for me to describe what I felt; something warm and all-encompassing and electric, with a definite personality and ability to communicate.)

4. Share a long term dream for one or more aspects of your life and work.

Having come up in the 80's when we were schooled to always have a very targeted and aspirational plan for personal and professional success -- my long-term dream is to divest my psyche of whatever's left of that b.s. and instead cultivate real openness to whatever God may be up to in my future.

5. Share a dream for 2010....How can we support you in prayer on both the short and long term dreams?

One of my current magnificent obsessions in ministry, as constant readers know,  is the concept of the domestic church. I think that as denominations continue their slow deconstruction and as the cultural/civic Christianity of past generations gives way, this is going to become a more important element of Christian self-identity and of spiritual formation. I've touched on this on our church blog, providing our readership with links to various online resources for Christian households. Maybe one of my dreams is to do more with this idea in the future, although at this point it's a very freeform/unfocused idea.

Bonus share: While trying (competitive person that I am) to come up with a good "bonus" dream reference, a song I haven't heard or thought of in years, if not decades, popped up in my head: "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream." I did a little YouTube research and came up with this clip of a young John Denver, in 1971, singing it at an antiwar demonstration. For a moment I was overtaken by a profound wistfulness for the idealism of those times, and the sadness of their passing and of John Denver's passing. I miss that simple, unaffected voice from back in those early days of his career. Requiem in pace.