(Dreams was originally posted on Red Room a few years ago and I am reposting it again.)

Dreams are an amazing phenomena.  I’m not referring to the personal goals and ambitions type of dream, but the full-blown, Fuji-coloured, action-packed kind of dreams with bizarre characters and you get to fly! And when I say fly, I really mean, flying where you are soaring high.

I use to get a lot of flying dreams when I was working the midnight to dawn shift in a hospital blood bank. This was a job where blood was cross-matched to transfused into accident victims, emergency hemorrhages, stabbings or anytime blood was needed as quickly as possible. During my shift, there was never a slow moment. By the time I got home to my bed, my dreams were jumbled and I was flying. Several people have told me this was a sign of stress and “flying” was the escape route. When I moved into a less stressful occupation, my dreams had morphed into an adventure series, but I was still flying high.  By then, I was taking creative writing courses in my leisure time. One instructor told me never  lose this edge because my assignments showed an active imagination and unusual creativity.  At that time, I think the unusual bit was the fact that I could just pick up the dream the next night to continue my adventurous and wild ride.

Eventually, as I mellowed and matured, the dreams became fewer and rarely had me flying at all. Instead of stress, I discovered that certain foods would activate the flying dreams. The other night I discovered  the sumptuous taste of slices of hot French baguettes stuffed with a simple cheese and crab filling. I’m not sure if it was the overindulgence of cheese and crab that made my subconscious go into overdrive when my head hit the pillows. As the dream progressed, I wanted to wake up and take copious notes, but I was too afraid of losing the thread of any coherent thoughts. Two things I do remember: I was flying again to escape something dark and evil and my Dad, who died 15 years ago, was telling me I shouldn’t have eaten so much of the cheese and crab appetizer, even though  it was good. My Dad loved stuff like that too.

I do believe dreams are a necessary part of a writer’s creative process. A writer can still be creative without the dreams, but dreaming makes the process so much richer. Having Fuji-coloured, action-packed dreams peopled with unusual characters enriches the imagination. Just take notes and remember where you can fly to retrieve those creative dreams.