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| Dreaming and conjuring |
Be Careful What You Ask
For
Yesterday, I
had one of those truly surreal moments when I connected to something I’d
thought about the night before.
I believe
that we can have what we desire, but the trick to life is in knowing what to want.
A few night
s ago I had a flashback dream. In the dream, I was a kid again and my brother and
I had snuck my mother’s recordings of the comedian Mom’s Mabley and were
listening to them in the basement.
We’d laugh
at the familiar lines of the bawdy old woman who made even my mother laugh. Moms
was in her late 70’s at the time and performing all over the world. “Don’t talk about the
dead unless it’s good,” Moms said of her late husband. “Well, he’s dead, good.”
I woke up
laughing and wondering how and why I had conjured Moms. I knew that she’d had a
difficult life. She’d been raped twice when she was a child and forced to marry
a much older man. Her grandmother, whom she said was responsible for “hipping”
her; making her wise, encouraged her to run away. She did so and joined the vaudeville
circuit. I laughed at the dream but I had a big day ahead of me and so I forgot
all about my night time visit with Moms.
Later that morning,
my daughter and I flew to Cincinnati for a meeting the next day. We spent the
morning with a good friend who took us to lunch. Afterwards, we walked around
an artsy neighborhood and found a throwback record store. The place had some of
everything. There were CDs and vinyl; 45s and 78s.
I was
looking in a section of CDs with recordings of Dr. King and Malcom X and then I
found it; a collection of performances of Moms Mabley. I stood there wondering
if this was actually happening.
Thinking of
Moms Mabley is rather random; finding her CD in a store my friend didn’t even
know existed was downright mind boggling. (More about Moms)
As we rode
in the car, we listened and laughed at what I had mostly forgotten. To hear my
daughter laugh at the same things that I did as a kid was priceless.
What can you
conjure?
What old
memories would you like to revisit?
What did you
dream?
Today, I’ve decided to
be even more focused with my desires, because I never know what might turn up.
Be you, be well, be
wanting.
Bertice Berry, PhD.
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