Have you ever woken up from a dream so vivid that for a few moments, you weren’t entirely sure you were still in it? Dreams are funny things…one moment you’re chasing a White Rabbit who’s perpetually late and the next you’re sipping tea with the Mad Hatter wondering if your teacup has always been this upside-down. Winnie the Pooh, the wise honey-loving bear said it best and may be onto something….
“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
What if there’s more truth to that than we realize? As I sit here sipping tea (which may or may not be entirely real), I can’t help but think there may be something more to this dreaming business. There’s something incredibly comforting knowing that even when we’re apart from those we care about, we might still find each other in the dream world.
The Dreamer or Dreamed?
This brings me to the Red King – that slumbering monarch whose nap caused me a minor identity crisis. If you haven’t met him, let me set the scene:
There he was, dozing under a tree, completely unaware that his nap might be the cause of my very existence. Tweedledee and Tweedledum informed me that I wasn’t as real as I thought. Apparently, the Red King was dreaming and I was nothing more than a figment of his imagination. If he woke up, I would vanish, poof into thin air, as if I’d never been. You can imagine my surprise.
Now, I’m not one to panic over every dilemma that comes my way, but being told I might poof out of existence if someone stops dreaming and wakes up? Well, it gives you a bit of pause. It’s enough to make anyone question reality, but then again we are in Wonderland. Reality and I haven’t been on speaking terms since I fell down that rabbit hole.
Zhuangzi, a philosopher who lived in the 4th century BCE in Ancient China one night dreamed he was a butterfly. He fluttered about with not a care in the world, entirely absorbed in being a butterfly. Then, he woke up and realized he was Zhuangzi again. But he woke up to quite a conundrum, he wasn’t sure if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he was Zhuangzi!
It reminds me so much of the Red King and his nap. Was I, Alice, simply a figment of imagination? Or was he just a rather lazy monarch catching some zzz’s while the rest of us went about our business? Where does the line between reality and dream lie, or are there any lines at all? After all, even if I was part of the Red King’s dream, I didn’t disappear. I’m still here writing to you now! Maybe just like Zhuangzi’s butterfly, I am both dreamer and dreamed, existing in some delightful in-between place.
The Subconscious at Play
Dreams aren’t just a chaotic mess of random images, rather they serve as a way for the brain to process our emotions and experiences – like a rather well-organized filing system, which is ironic since mine is usually a mess.
When we dream of someone, it’s often our subconscious reminding us of what’s truly important, sometimes in ways we don’t fully understand while awake. So, when we dream of someone we miss, as Pooh suggests, it’s as if our minds are holding on to them for us, creating a space where distance doesn’t matter. In fact, psychologist say that the act of dreaming about loved ones could be our mind’s way of reinforcing those bonds, keeping us emotionally close, even when we’re seperated by time, distance, or in my case a bothersome rabbit hole.
Wake Up and Smell The Tea
And now, back to the Red King, who though blissfully unaware, may have been dreaming me into existence. Now, I’m not suggesting we all become like the Red King and snooze through life. Dreams are wonderful, yes, but eventually you do have to wake up. The key is to balance the dream world with the waking one. Dreams are a part of life, but life is also a part of dreams. Those connections we feel in dreams are real, even if the dream isn’t. So when you wake up, don’t forget to nurture those relationships in the real world too. Reach out, send that text, or make plans for a tea party – even if it’s virtual. And if the White Rabbit tells you he’s too busy – well, tell him to make time.
Whether we’re talking about Pooh’s gentle wisdom, the Red King’s existential snooze, or my own topsy-turvey adventures, one thing is clear: dreams are a way of staying connected. If we’re all part of each other’s dreams, then maybe we’re never really apart, even when we wake up.
Life, like Wonderland is strange, beautiful and fleeting. And if I do happen to dissappear when the Red King wakes up? Well, at least it’s been a marvelous adventure and a delightful dream!
(still dreaming, still here)
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