I started a poem in my dream. I worked and worked through the rigorous process as I do in the day, felt the thrill of seeing the words come together. I wrote a real poem in my sleep – actually, a pretty good one. And then I — WOKE. I surfaced tired from all that thinking and by the time the grogginess had lifted, I’d lost the precious fruit of my labor to the daylight. It would’ve been too late to snatch it, preserve it, even with my blog book on hand. Aughhh. How do I take the notebook into sleep with me?
Microchip it.
Samsung, Dell, Apple: Here, your next patent idea. I want 30%.
A Holistic Journey 
I just love/hate it when that happens! Seriously.
I’m not sure whether to smile or frown back. What have you lost in the other world?
I wrote the most amazing letter to (simultaneously) my ex, my grandfather and my sister. It was explanatory and revealing. Enlightening and tearful. Healing. And I can remember none of it now.
But sometimes that’s good too.
“It was explanatory and revealing. Enlightening and tearful. Healing. And I can remember none of it now. ”
LOL
O shoot. Hopefully it worked some healing magic in the recess of the subliminal.
I hate when that happens! Some brilliant idea, fully fleshed in the dream world dissipates like smoke when I wake. Maybe it will come back to you . . .
Oh, it hurt. BecauSe I had worked so hard and…fruitfully!
It’s gone. GO-o-o-Nnnne.
(I don’t think anyone’s heard me lament on this blog. ‘Til now.)
Thx for the empathy.
Reblogged this on 2l2phant and commented:
Oh !!!!!! I feel your frustration!!!!!
( proper use of punctuation, yes? 😉 )
A writer’s tragedy. I also wrote about the elusive words that escape the brilliance of when we sleep. 🙂
“A writer’s tragedy.” Oh, you understand!
Ha ha brilliance. Dang, wish I were so smart awake.
Don’t we all? 🙂
How sad, that I’d fare better on an IQ test in my sleep. LOL
Can definitely relate to this one. Love the microchip idea. It would be great to capture all the brilliance of sleep-induced genius 😉
Doesn’t look like my response took, CC. I’d said I wish I were so smart awake.
Better yet, give yourself a penny every time a wonderful dream or poem is lost to wakefulness. You’ll be rich! At least, I will. The other night, the only part of a very vivid dream I remember was the purple sunflowers with purple centers in the neighbor’s yard. I can still see them. An intense purple.
*Smile* Love the creative turn to the bright side of things, Elizabeth. What a sad way to make money, though LOL. Purple is good for the liver. To look at and to wear. And of course a good liver means good health, body and emotions.
Yeah, neat.
I do that a lot. The worst is when I dream I clean the house until it’s spotless. I wake up exhausted to a messy home!
LOL!
LOL LOVE it. That’s almost as bad as dreaming – when it’s ever so ReaL – that you won the lottery. And you wake up to bills.
I’ve had a dream where I was a CIA agent and had to fight my way through a maze of obstacles and attackers, each step to obtain one sentence or clue to a much larger message. Then at the end of my dream I placed all the clues together only to realize it was in a secret code…. I almost cracked the code to solve the case, but the I woke up! I hate it when that happens.
LOL This is getting mighty interesting. That is some serious thinking you did there, too. Deduction, logic…and not even for a test. Ha ha. I should’ve made this post a dream fest of stories. =)
If we can be this smart in our dreams, there must be hope for us fully conscious.
(Half-considered it but had wanted to end with the microchip.)
Recently I dreamt of a movie theater displaying a name — so clearly and powerfully that I wrote it down. Next day I googled and there is such a person. It’s a mystery. As far as I know I have never met her. I’m still wondering whether I should contact her, but I guess it would look pretty crazy to her — even frightening. I’m thinking about it.
LOL! Omg Mona, you’d freak me out. Ha ha ha. That is weeiired. This is so interesting, seeing where this post and the comments are going. I’ve had some vivid dreams predict exactly what was going to happen. As a teen, I dreamt our apt was broken into: even now I could see the doorknob rattling. The next day a teenage boy held up my 12-yr-old brother in the neighborhood with a fake knife behind the back and made him bring him home. The kid rummaged every nook and corner of our place. Bro wasn’t hurt, but fried (emotionally).
I love it when the dog in your dreams comments and talks to you just like that is what they are supposed to do and then when you see them cock their head at you in real life you wonder why they just can’t say what is in those eyes, because in your dream they speak.
Ha ha. I can tell you really love your dog. You must really want to understand him to dream of him like that.
One of these days that beautiful poem will come to you in the light of day, when it is ready. 🙂
Boy, are you priceless or what?
Thanks.
LOL. Make sure you get credit for the idea- I want one of those too, Diana.
Oh, I always fight for my due. You don’t wanna be the manager who gyps me on a loose-thread sweater at the store. =)
I just want the 30% of the attorney fees that Apple & Samsung would spend suing each other when they say that “They” invented it.
LOL But I put out legal proof I own part of the rights. In print, right here. Over 2300 witnesses. =)
Oh I hate it when that happens, and it does to most people. You are in the middle of a dream and all of a sudden something wakes you up. (Alarm perhaps?) You feel cheated out of the end of the story. lol. It also happens when the video machine doesn’t get the end of a story.
*Smile* But it just stinks like nothing else when it’s your ArT. And you had worked so hard…for nothing. Ugh.
It must be some place in your subconscious. Perhaps it will emerge later in some slightly different way? It might be hard to recognize it as such right away as well. Sort of frustrating, but cool.
It is gone forever into the abyss. I wanted to post this over a week ago.
Oh, my art. Oh, my darling.
*ache*
Oh wouldn’t that make things easier.
BAH.
Sigh.
[see your sigh will raise you a wistful expression] For those times when something caught your eye but you were driving or something else was happening and by the time you stopped or got near a pen the essence of it had fled leaving tattered remnants of thoughts not worth patching.
I often scrawl on pen and paper – whatever scrap I can grab, even napkins – when I don’t have my notebook. The worst is when the pen runs out of ink. Argh. I was so frustrated last wk! Ha ha. So duh, Diana. Call yourself a writer? STOCK up on pens and paper!
Ahh.. The beauty of what might have been. 🙂
*Sad smile* Put so well, Carl.
Well, that is, if you trust it was in fact good. =)
Thanks for taking my word for it.
I wish I were so smart, conscious. ^^
lovely sense of humor. I agree, take the laptop, phone, notebook etc into the dream with you. clutch it in your hands and start writing as soon as those pesky and illusive motivational words start pouring into your spirit. Ahha, I got you. 🙂
Ah…you caught me unable to catch my own words, VW. Hmf. Merciless you are, given the circumstances.
lol. keep you on your toes:)
Happens to me all the time.
That often, huh? Oh, I’d hate that, Carl.
Ahhh…hate it when that happens. Watch though, the words might sneak up on you in an most unexpected place and you’ll be poised with your notebook to capture it.
That said, I totally dig the microchip idea! How many times that would come in handy during driving, housework and long, boring meetings 🙂
I sure could use downloading & copy/pasting help in my mental CPU. Yep, I write all the time in snippets while navigating the streams of the day.
If you missed, I describe it here:
https://holisticwayfarer.com/2013/08/19/st-r-u-gg-ling-artist/
and I will smooth out what you mentioned and not approve the other comment. =)
Bless you! Teaches me to type in the dark 🙂
(And, thank you for the link…I left a little message over there)
I empathize with you. If it’s near waking hours from 4:00 a.m. I would waken easily and reach for my iPad notebook and capture everything almost word for word. Earlier than that I may recall the main part and am able to complete the night vision. That’s how it works for me for anything meaningful.
That’s cool. I appreciate the dedication with which you’re ready to catch those precious thoughts. You know, I’ve been telling myself I’ll keep some pen and paper ready by my bed but your example inspires me to really do it. I’ve been getting up to unload my thoughts – even the last three nights – on the desk in the office so they’re all in one place (either just before sleep takes me or in the mid of the night). But I’ll do as you do. Thanks. =)
HW
I was on my iPad this a.m. My husband asked what time it was and I said 6. He wondered why it was so dark and I looked again and saw that it was 5 a.m.! I was wakened with a song so as usual I listed the title where I keep a running account of the songs that the Holy Spirit wakes me up with. Today it was ‘Bless The Lord O My Soul, Bless His Holy Name’ which led me to read and meditate on Psalm 103. The Bible is also on my iPad! Blessings to you!
That’s beautiful, how you wake to song and the way you began this day. Thanks for sharing. =)
HW
I hear you loud and clear. I have about 10 lines written since this morning but my problem is finding the right words to match the dream. Maybe you could keep a recorder near you in case you speak in your dream:)
Ah, another great idea. Recorder. I keep losing them! (Anything small’s game…) One more thing to ask hubby to invest in. Thanks, O!
I actually use the recorder on my smart phone.
I don’t have a smart phone. I had to return the one I tried. Long story. But glad that works for you! Your blog has really turned out lovely, O.
I used to carry a tiny recorder (still works) when I would go on long walks because I would leave very frustrated or worked up about something but after about 10 or 20 blocks, I would get these “aha” thoughts and forget it by the time I got home…so I carried the recorder I had purchased for about 50$…my grandson has fun with it…so there’s an idea:)
Yeah, great. I could see how that worked for you. I’ve used it really well to record all sorts of things for my son to memorize, Bible vs I put to song and the hundreds of facts across the subjects he learned the last 5 months with our homeschool group – all to music. I’d play it in the car or even while he’s brushing (yeah, time Nazi). I’ve also recorded his reading – soooo cute. Such a difference over the course of months or a year. I really did misplace the recorder last month! We had two and I can’t find either. Sigh.
What an amazing Mommy you are! and so much fun. I used to tell my kids bedtime stories I made up and I wish I had recorded some of them because they were different each time…oh well. My daughter remembers some.
Aww….that would’ve been great to record those stories, O. Good thing the microchip in your daughter’s brain was in good working order.
You know, Samuel Colridge woke from a dream (or opium-induced stupor according to his mother) with 300 lines of “Xanadu” in his head. Whilst scribbling them down, a neighbor came pounding on the door, looking to borrow some lard. The poem evaporated at Line 24.
LOL Omg omg. Wish I had added your comment to the post. Omg I would kill the neighbor.
But then again, wait. If it was opium-induced, we couldn’t count it real art. It’s like an athlete on steroids for his performance. 😉
The woman who wrote the Twilight series – gosh, everyone knows her name – see how sluggish this brain is, awake??? Anyway, she dreamt a scene out of her first book. She was enthralled with the idea of a vampire falling in love with the girl whose blood he wants. Came straight out of her dream. And she ended up a millionaire once she ran with the storyline. Dang it, to think I mighta lost out on $ thousands with the dream, huh?
Do you think I could sell film rights to this dream?
http://gpjva.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/zombie-chase-across-alien-landscape-and-urban-campus/
I’ve had similar events happen. Oddly enough I find that if I concentrate on what I want back when I go to sleep, I can often reaccess it. How you get it from there to paper, I’ve never perfected. It is still in there though, of that you can be sure. I find it is also possible to accomplish other complex thinking tasks as well. At one point I was responsible for the scheduling of 70 truck drivers servicing 100 retail outlets up to 6 deliveries per week per store. There were equipment considerations, log hour considerations, timing with multiple deliveries per load and other considerations. The combinations and permutations were in the 10’s of millions. As the company was growing, we had to rework the schedule every 6 months. I’d spread out everything in the boardroom, immerse myself in the requirements, then go home and concentrate on it as I was falling asleep. I’d wake up with the answers or at least the direction to take for a solution. This was the job of many days and we would do it in sections – so there were many such “working dream'” nights. When implemented there was seldom a need to revise or adjust the schedule. I’ve used this skill many other times when problems were particulary gnarly. In my experience, it cannot produce data – in other words you have to do the legwork while awake – but it can provide solutions with known data.
Not sure if that is of any help but you would be surprised how much computing your brain can do while you’re asleep. Good luck Holistic Wayfarer! (P.S. this skill is consistent with your name “Holistic” as in using/considering the big picture and “Wayfarer” as in finding a pathway less taken.)
Paul, if you’re out for the Most Innovative and Enlightening among my dedicated readers Award, looks like you’re getting it. You caught up fast to some. Feels like you’ve been here a year.
I understand, yes, it’s actually possible to reenter a dream scene you fiercely want to. Quite impressed with your deconstruction of my username but it is precisely the world of holistic health that reminds us it is best to settle our mind with the setting of the sun. To follow the descent of energy in nature with our body. I am my most creative at night but it’s proved counterproductive in the long run. Rest yields greater efficiency. Having said that, my life indeed has traveled the road less taken, thanks.
“it cannot produce data – in other words you have to do the legwork while awake – but it can provide solutions with known data.” Very cool.
Ha! Of course you are right – I can give new meaning to working 24 hrs a day. It is likely best to allow your mind a free reign to explore what it chooses when asleep. And yes, the process I decribed does leave you more haggard when awake – but it’s good to know it’s there of you really need it. Oh, and thanks for the compliment!
You’re a poet, even when you’re complaining that you lost the words!
So very sweet. Ah — I’m tempted to feel pressure. But thank you. =)
Xxx
Been in that situation many times. I hear you. Hope Samsung, dell, Apple, etc. hear you, too.
LOL Hey, their loss if they don’t seize this. I’ll take it to HTP and Motorola.
If it does happen, though, that they are able to pick through our brains and get those stuff, I think that would be quite scary.
LOL LOL The idea hit me bc the gadgets are growing smaller every year. I can’t beLiEve the stuff we can do on our phones now.
Indirectly related:
https://holisticwayfarer.com/2013/04/29/facebook-phobia-rehab/
=)
People I work with everyday are too tech-savvy. Aside from our office messenger, I am the one with the least hi-tech gadgets. I know I can learn easily because I do like technology at times, but I don’t like borrowing stuff that much. I tend to be stingy so i don’t keep buying those latest gadgets. hey do cost a lot.
It’s not so much the writing that I lose when the morning slams into me. As I struggle to learn and understand the language of the country in which I now live, I am often fluent in my dreams. Such comfort and familiarity and contentment!
And then I wake up.
So you become fluent in the language you’re struggling to learn? Which is….? This is awesome (from a linguist’s perspective, not that I delight in your bittersweet awakening). I’ll be doing a post on language and culture sometime.
Norwegian, and I’ve lived here seven years! Some of my issues are interrupted learning (many trips back to the US for family emergencies and visits), working from home in English so not hearing the language around me, many Norwegians comfortable with English so we speak that together, and my own learning issues. I’m taking classes, and overall it’s certainly better than it was when I first moved here … but still, it’s frustrating!
I look forward to your post on language and culture!
Huh. Yes, nothing beats immersion. Thanks for sharing, Cindi. I hope it works out for you. I’ve noted your comment to refer to it when I put the post together.
HW
I can absolutely sympathize with your plight!
Due to my schedule, I only get about three to four hours of sleep per day, much to my dismay, and some nights I find myself fighting the nods. More often than not, I’ll be writing along and suddenly the best words in days begin to pour out of my fingers and into the word file. That’s when it happens; the nod. I’ll lift my head and discover that my word file is screaming at me. “aaaaaa…..”
Pages and pages of a single letter, empty returns or more space than I’ll ever use. Even worse, all of those beautiful words have begun slip back into the void from whence they came!
I suppose it could be worse? I could write with Dragon? lol Then again, it might be interesting to ‘hear’ what I’m writing after suffering the occasional micronap.
Yeah, sounds like you need a nap, R. Do try to steal one, even if it’s in the car. Bet you’ll see the difference in the writing. Some readers here reminded me to use a recorder. Very helpful feedback on this post!
Do you talk in your sleep? If you do, maybe you can set an audio recorder when you go to bed and maybe it will record it.
LOL LOL Several readers have brought the recorder to my attention under this post but not as you have. Only you, Scott. Too bad I don’t talk in my sleep.
LOL
Haha, so glad you get my humor! Sorry about your lost dream poem.
“Sorry about your lost dream poem.” That is, if you take my word for it that it was good. He he. Thanks. So’m I.
Your post reminds me of a presentation on TED by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love.” Here is the link – I think you’ll enjoy it: https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius
Gail. I closed the screen on the talk with tears in these eyes. Took some notes. You’ll know if I post this down the line. I heard every word, some repeatedly. Got chills at the description of the dancer, lit from within, lit from below.
Damn – and I’ve never sworn on this blog – I want to write right now. But am exhausted and need to turn in.
Thank you. So much.
Diana
You’re very welcome, Diana. Somehow, I knew you’d like it as much as I did.
Oh Diana, this has happened to me so many times, with poems, entire blog posts. Then, like a whisper in the wind, it’s gone, just like that. When they come up with the patent for the cure for this you will be a rich woman indeed… 😉
My readers offered some neat tips to try to minimize the loss in the future. =) Feel sorry for you. I’ll give you 5% of my cut.
Ha Ha 🙂
Well that has happened a few times to me also! They will return again to you one night when you least expect it…until then we are always blessed to have you share your words, and messages! No apologies needed…you are always a blessing! God bless!
You’re more optimistic than I, WB. Thank you. =)
That must be frustrating. I have had dreams like that where really special things come to me. Sometimes I am able to remember them, but when I can’t remember it really bugs me.
Blessings,
Theresa
Quite sad.
No guarantees, but sometimes when I am doing a repetitive task and get in the zone, bits and pieces of recent dreams float up and sometimes I can focus on one and the rest follows. Also, acupressure on my feet can sometimes trigger recovery of dreams.
Ah – my beloved acupressure. Dream was two weeks ago. You’d have to punch a hole through the foot for that one but I will keep that in mind, Eileen! Thanks. =)
Hug,
Diana
There were a lot of comments, so I’m not sure if someone else already said this or not, but I often cannot remember my dreams, and very rarely remember having any dreams at all, but when I do, if I lie there and think about the dream over again before I ever open my eyes, a lot of times it will stay close to the surface of my consciousness long enough for me to get the majority of it down on paper (if I hurry). The trick is to ‘relive’ it before you open your eyes. Once your eyes open, your subconscious whisks it all away in no time, lol.
You described the steps to retrieving very well. I know what you mean. But this one had evaporated before I opened my eyes. And it wasn’t just any dream. I take my work seriously. And WoRK I had put into it. =(
Thanks for the sweet input.
HW
Let’s hope they don’t develop microchips anytime soon Diana that can record our thoughts. 🙂 I am sorry you lost your beautiful poem though. I have interesting dreams but I have never written a poem in one! –Curt
I BET you have taken pictures in the other world, though!!
Mainly I wander around and get lost. LOL It was a common nightmare when I led wilderness trips. Sometimes I fly. That helps. Funny, but I don’t seem to dream about photography or writing. –Curt
That IS funny that you haven’t snapped shots over on the other side. But wandering and getting lost covers you.
Point is, you’re a real blogger, C.
LOL
Thanks Diana. And I haven’t forgotten that my submission editing. It helps reading what others are saying.– Curt
Yep. =) That’s great. Much food for thought from the contributions thus far.
Oh, this struck such a chord. I can’t begin to count how many wonderful stories have been forgotten so completely by the morning light. And they were so darn good! I envy those people who are able to actually transfer their dreams to paper. What’s the secret to remembering? It must still be in there somewhere! 😀
The readers here had some neat tips. =)
My empathy, Linda. Seriously a bummer.
Just last night, as I was drifting to sleep, I had the most amazing start to the blog that I am about to write. Unfortunately, the words will not come so easily today! A common problem, it seems……..
Aww…sad for you. =(
I lost several folders of teaching materials recently… there is a chance the folders are on the network of the employers that I may reconnect with next month… if not; not then… I’ll make do.
Its good to share the ups and downs… and be free to do so.
That’s all I really know about – is nice to be free – that having ways to let go is good.
Blessings
~ Eric
Oh, Eric. I am sorry to hear.
What a lovely, admirable perspective you keep on things. You bring to mind what Corrie Ten Boon said, that she learned to hold things loosely in her hand bc it hurt too much when God had to pry it loose. Something along this line. So the past two decades, I have shrugged that it was never mind to lose when I couldn’t find certain things.
Except
my art is a different matter.
Or so I’ve thought – until your input.
You also remind me of Elisabeth Elliot and William Carey who lost months and years of translation work on the field, and learned the sacrifice of offering, of loss.
ThAnk you for the faithful support.
Warmly,
Diana
😂😂😂😉😉
This happens to me always . A terrible nice feeling it is.
LOL Bittersweet.