una visión

Right before I woke up today—about a half an hour ago—I had a vivid dream that has burned itself into my head. This is a rare experience, because usually, I can't remember anything from my dreams.

I was at home in Chicago for some vacation, and it was summerish weather. Janna had taken our car to somewhere in West Michigan, I wasn't clear where. I had my bicycle. Somehow I was going to ride my bicycle to meet up with her—she was apparently driving back towards Chicago. I was planning on riding on the expressway, so I was pedaling towards the highway. As I was riding, I realized that it is illegal to ride one's bike on a limited-access highway. I then realized that I had no map, and my cell-phone only had about a day's worth of battery charge left. I also did not know if Janna's cellphone was on.

My bike began making an intolerable squeaking, and I had no oil. I had a little money, but I didn't want to buy a new container of oil just for this trip, because I already had one at home. I noticed the backdoor of a hardware or auto-parts store was open. So I snuck in, and sitting right there was a bottle of three-in-one oil. I put some on my bike, but I put too much on. As I was applying the oil, I saw a face looking through the window. I could tell that it was a child's face, so I made a loud noise to scare him away. However, when I looked closer, I could tell he was just barely a toddler, and, rather than being scared by the sound, he started making delighted baby gurgling noises. I made some silly faces at the baby and then I left.

I rode on, however, I had put so much oil on the gears of my bike, that I couldn't control it, and it was starting to wobble all over the road. In fact, some of the nuts were coming unscrewed, and I was about to go down, so I headed for the side of the road. However, when I fell over, instead of falling over into the grass and the bushes on the side, I fell right through them into a steep drop-off, that looked like a pure 70-foot free fall. I have always been told that if you fall in your dreams and you hit the ground, that's because you've died. Well, it has happened to me several times that I have fallen fairly far in my dream and hit the ground. However, this is the greatest free-fall that I can ever remember facing in a dream.


However, instead of hitting the ground, I grabbed on to...you guessed it...a vine. And for the first time in my dream, I used my upper body strength—it may be the first time I had any upper body strength in reality to use—and I climbed up that vine. I of course was thinking that all was lost, I didn't have a bike, a map, or a clue. But when I stepped back onto the shoulder, I saw my bike still standing, without a kickstand in the center of the intersection, where it finally wobbled and crashed to the ground. I rushed towards it, and screamed as loud as I could at the cars coming. They all slammed on their breaks, and I rolled my bicycle to the side of the road.

That's when I woke up. I think that it's a message from God. That's why I'm sharing it today. But, I'll let y'all decide what you think it means.