The Feathers appeared

I had a dream. Not a famous one but an ordinary dream. A couple of dreams actually. In those dreams feathers appeared. Now, I’ve always heard the quote “when angels are near feathers appear” but I hadn’t seen it, until now.

You see in my first dream I was sharing a meal with my parents who have both passed on. I was whining and carrying on about being sick and tired of being sick and tired and not being able to get up and go to work.

I had gotten very sick in January and wound up septic in the hospital for a week. Following hospitalization i was primarily on bed rest due to a leg wound that required my leg be elevated as much as possible. Due to lack of activity for three months and not being in great shape to begin with, I lost a good deal of muscle tone in my legs. I had also advanced into stage 3 chronic kidney disease and am carrying around a good bit of water weight. Most recently it was discovered I have degenerative joint disease in my spine, hips and knees and something in my lower back is not where it should be. All of these make minimal tasks very difficult for me.

Mom looked at me from across the table and said “if you cannot get up and go to work than work sitting down” and with that they were gone. I was left in the booth by myself and when I ran my hand a long the top edge of the booth I felt something metal. I picked a carved metal feather with ribbon on it, a bookmark. I knew the feather was significant but I didn’t know why at first.

My medical condition has left me in a state where my former job was no longer held because I could not do it at the end of my FMLA time. I can’t commit to any 9-5 right now with the amount of doctors appointments, medical tests, life changing procedures to follow and the like.

I started to research work from home positions and the same consistent continuously caught my eye:writing. A light went off in my head and the metal bookmark reappeared. It’s a feather from heaven with a message: books.

I decided to write a book. I needed a subject. Some thoughts occurred but seemed more short story type than a book.

Enter dream number 2. There’s some background to this. For a very long time I have been dealing with anxiety. Not normal anxiety, no mine is wake up in the middle of the night in complete panic and never want to leave my house anxiety. It stems from stress regarding medical issues, having so many complications of my condition, being unable to work, having to figure out how to support myself, jobless roommate and pets when I just have savings, not feeling well ever and trying to find normalcy in a completely abnormal situation.

A very good friend helped me develop “my happy place.” A place I create in my head where I imagine myself being when the stress gets to be too much. Shortly after the book idea I began to worry about all of the above and I went to my happy place and I fell asleep. I remained in my happy place in my dream and at my favorite resting point was a feather.

I woke up and said I’m going to write a story with my happy place as the setting and the ideas sprang forth. I’m doing it, I’m writing a book. At the time of my first blog post I’m 20,000 words in and I’ve just begun.

I realize a book is a big undertaking and won’t happen overnight so I’m looking for some other projects too. The blog will be one of my projects. It will showcase my thoughts, my struggles, my health and life journeys and at times feature some short stories or random things. It’s a jumping point to bigger things.

Even being gone all this time (1994) Mom still gives good advice.