Journal Your Dreams

Last night I had a dream about a former colleague, Barbara. We were sharing an office in a big old building. Someone asked for her business card when she wasn’t there, so I tried to give him one. She had a box of cards and each one was different. Some were cut out in the shape of letters, and they had lots of different job titles. Each one had a different beautiful photo of her, some in color and some black and white. I didn’t know which one to give him.

The concept might exist already, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could give everyone a unique business card? It would have more value as a one-of-a-kind card. A few times in the past I got business cards from artists who put a few brush strokes on cards they stamped with their contact info. But that’s a time-consuming and fruitless task considering that most people these days toss business cards after they digitally record the information they need.

Why did Barbara play the leading role in my dream-movie last night?

Perhaps because she made a big impression on me the first time I met her years ago in Puerto Rico. She went out of her way to show me her beautiful historic home town, Old San Juan. She’s a strong and self-confident woman who would make a great mentor to other women. I admire her ability to make life-changing decisions and continue to smile no matter what’s going on in her personal or work life. She exudes positive energy and presence when she enters a space.

Where on earth do these dreams come from?

Well I’m not sure of the answer to that question, but as a writer, I am sure about what to do when you wake up from one of these dreams. Write it down right away so you don’t lose the thought. There’s a good chance that you can capture some aspect of the dream to write about in the future.

What might have triggered this dream?

Possessions. I’m in the process of liquidating most of our stuff for an upcoming move to China. I’ve been cleaning out my office, including business cards. I have a big collection of them because I like saving ones with cool graphics, photos, or other interesting design elements. So I’ve acquired quite a few over the years. And I’ve been cleaning out furniture and cabinets, including my nightstand drawers where I recently saw my dream journal. I’ve also been thinking about designing a new business card, not only because I have a book coming out soon, but also because I’ll be moving to China. The old business card definitely needs to be updated.

Do you have a dream journal?

Say yes. I keep a journal in the nightstand next to my bed. I got out of the habit of writing down my dreams, but was reminded this morning of how powerful these ideas can be for future stories. Your brain already created some strange scene. Now you own the right to publishing it. Write it down or you’ll probably forget it by the time you have your morning coffee. You’ll be sipping  your coffee mentioning to someone, “I had an interesting dream last night about . . . well . . . I can’t seem to remember now.”