Are you interested in the interpretation of dreams?

I want to tell you about a recurrent dream I have had since 1990. Maybe you can help me figure out the life lesson I’m to derive from it.

After two major spinal surgeries to try to save my life at the Mayo Clinic and then a year in a body cast, I was left with a terrible dreaded fear of spending the rest of my life confined in a wheelchair.

This nightmare began during that time.

Did you know dreams can repeat themselves for years? Mine did and here’s the dream.

I saw myself sitting on a pier, a dock, that led from the road to the beach. I was in a wheelchair. Strangely though, as time passed, the dream seemed to change.

I became aware there was a man pushing me, a man I never recognized. He started pushing me towards the stairs going down to the beach.

I wondered how he could push a wheelchair down some steps but I still didn’t feel scared.

You see, I love the beach and the ocean, and, in fact, have lived most of my life on it or near it. Maybe that calmed me.

I guess in dreams many things can happen that aren’t explainable.

Somehow the man managed to get me down the steps. He kept right on pushing my chair.

The closer we got to the water’s edge, I realized the tide was rapidly coming in.

The man kept pushing, right to the incoming waves. The sand now was wet and soft and the wheels of my wheelchair were sinking into the sand.

I remembered feeling very uneasy and I actually recall exactly what I said to the man.

“Don’t go any further out. Can’t you see the tide is coming in?”

He did not answer me.

I cried, “Pull me back!”

He didn’t answer me.

As best I could, I turned my body around to see why he didn’t answer me. There was no man there.

Quickly, I looked up and down the beach and there was not a person in sight.

I tried to cry out but couldn’t. I knew I would drown while trapped in the wheelchair. I saw myself slump over and I started to pray.

What happened next is what I never understood.

A wave lapped around my feet and there was this surge of … what? Energy? Determination? Purpose?

But I saw myself heave with all my strength I hadn’t had in all the years of fearing I would end up in a wheelchair.

I stood, stepped away from the dreaded wheelchair and walked away down the beach without a cane or help.

No one has ever analyzed this dream, but I feel it is a message of hope for me.

You know, when I walk my daily 20 laps, people sometimes ask me what I think about during all of that time. I could say to them, “My daily walking is a miracle.” I’m so aware of that and thankful for it that most of the time I’m thinking how blessed I am.

The view from the mountain is wondrous.

Jean Brody is a passionate animal lover and mother. She previously lived in Winchester, but now resides in Littleton, Colorado. Her column has appeared in the Sun for more than 25 years.