Dream Diary - Teeth

I had a really awful dream Tuesday night, a recurring dream that I have periodically. In this dream, my teeth were falling out. Just one or two to start with, but then more and more. Some of the teeth were breaking up into pieces as they came out, but several were falling out whole as well. Some of them really bled a lot too, but others didn’t. My teeth just kept falling out and I was spitting them into a trash can. It seemed like there were about a hundred of them, way too many anyway. The more came out, the more I started to panic. I remember wondering how I would ever be able to eat again with no teeth. It was pretty terrible and I suppose this is about as close as I ever get to a nightmare. There were several other people in this dream, but I don’t remember who they were or what they were doing. They didn’t seem to mind the fact that my teeth were falling out, they just went about their business.

Like I said, this is a recurring dream that I have had many times. This is the second time I’ve had it since we moved to Nebraska last April. It’s not always exactly the same, but it’s always about the teeth. It's no mystery to me where this dream comes from. I’ve had bad teeth for a long time. Even when I was working and had insurance I could never afford to go to the dentist. I always wake up from this dream in a real fright, heart racing and all. I always have to check my teeth when I wake to see if they’re loose.

It was just a bad night all around. I was up late working on my blog and didn't go to bed until after one o'clock. Even then it took me a while to start drifting off. Wen I finally started falling asleep, a thunderstorm rolled through, so I was up even longer. I finally got to sleep and had that bad dream which I woke from in kind of a panic. Later on, another thunderstorm came through, this one even louder, and woke me up again. No more bad dreams though, thank goodness.

It occurred to me that I really don’t have many bad dreams. Usually just this one about my teeth. I guess that means my life isn’t too bad, doesn’t it? If my teeth falling out is the worst my mind can come up with, I guess I’ve had a pretty good life.

Now that I mention it, that reminds me of a dream I used to have when I was a kid. Younger than ten, at least, because it took place in the house I grew up in out on the farm. I used to have this dream where I was out in the corn field at night, and there was a wolf chasing me. I never actually saw the wolf, but I knew it was a wolf anyway.

I would run and run through the corn field until I finally came out of it, close to where our house was. In those days, our house was closely bordered on two sides by corn fields.

When I finally got up to the house, I threw open the front door and ran inside, only to find that it wasn’t our house, but the school I went to. The school was dark and empty and I would run down the hall trying the doors, finding them all locked.

Well, I was just a kid then. Wolves are scary when you’re a kid and sometimes corn fields are too, I guess. Still, the lack of scary dreams would seem to indicate that I’ve had a pretty non-scary life.

Psalms 23:4-5 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints.