Hope and Futures

It is exam season and honestly, who is daft enough to enjoy this? The motivational level regarding school work has ground to a halt: I have no desire to study for my one final, however on a different note and scale altogether, my productivity at home has sky-rocketed. In the last few days I've not only finished Christmas shopping for nine people, wrapped these Christmas gifts, wrote two postcards, one letter, received a scholarship (woo!) but also accepted a business proposal, watched Charlie Brown's Christmas, finished Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (courtesy of JC), uploaded a really great celtic Christmas album and had a solid, phenomenal 1-on-1 with God about my future.

But regarding these things (please don't see them as bragging, I'm just marvelling at how much I actually have the capacity to do in three days), I do not post.

Yes, how messed up is that?

What I'm about to write about it something that was incredibly odd to me and something that I was neither expecting nor thinking I would hear.

~~

For those who know me very well, they will already know that I do not dream.

Well let me rephrase that. If I do dream, I don't remember what it is about. Ever. It is an extremely bizarre circumstance if I am able to pick out details and the like from circumstances that occurred while I slept. However last night was one of the more bizarre experiences and I actually had the sense to write it down. 

~~

So for whatever reason Anne was in prison. And in equally strange measures, I apparently did something that made me end up in prison also. I do not understand what I did but I was sure that I did not murder anyone. From what I understand, it was a violation of the law of lesser quality than taking one's life but of great enough significance that I ended in a rather unfortunate place.

The location of this prison was in a warm-climated area - the floors were flagstone and the walls were concrete bricks but even despite the coolness of the stone, you could feel the warmth coming in through the doors. 

When facing the front desk (yes, there was a front desk in the wing where there were prisoners), I noticed that it was about four cells long. Anne's cell was third from the left. When I came to the prison, she moved to the cell at the far left and I took her former one.

They didn't wash the bedding or anything when I got there but I knew it was only Anne so I didn't worry about it.

There were single beds and were remarkably comfortable for a prison. My first day, I noticed a rug on top of the bed and about three pillows. The woman at the desk was very kind and asked if I wanted a warmer blanket as we were to be getting into bed. I thought about it for a moment and thought of my extreme likelihood to get cold during the night. I said yes. she handed me a surprisingly nice down comforter though a little worse for wear, one which would cover the span of the top of the single bed. She took the comforter into my cell, put the rug and a sheet on the floor and spread the new blanket over the bed. I remember taking the rug also up off of the floor and spreading it over top of the down blanket - I get cold at night and wanted the maximum amount of warmth. In addition, she also gave me a remarkably comfortable pillow, longer than the others, soft and ever so slightly lumpy, much more preferable to the others. I don't know how but I ended up with six pillows plus this large one.

I organized these pillows and would eventually settle down. I thought sleep would be horrible but aside from few people walking out and across the wing at spontaneous times during the night, it wasn't truly that bad.

Before I got into bed, there was an old negro man in a wheel-chair by the barred window at the far right of the wing. This was more or less in a corner before it turned off into the murder's section (again indicating that this was not my felony thank heaven!). He was staring up at the sky looking at the stars and had a hard time seeing. He asked me to describe them and we talked for a while. He was also looking for something out the window but I am unsure as to what it is. He was a happy gentleman and I immediately had a connection with him.

Each cell individually was about 7 feet across and about 10 feet long, barred on all sides except the one which the bed was against (or the back wall). You could see the people on either side of you but there really wasn't any reason to look over there so you kept mostly forward.

There were no personal effects to be seen, particularly noted as alarm clocks but there was a clock over the front desk. I don't know why this was important but it was a vivid detail that stuck out.

When I woke the next morning, there was a large, negro man that I met and became fast friends with. During the course of the day, we played in a fountain in the middle of the courtyard. We must have looked strange, two grown people, one 5'9" the other at least 6'2" splashing about in the water, but the child in us seemed to be coming out. Also odd to note was that there, in the middle of this "L-shaped" courtyard about 5 feet from the fountain, there was a plug in the middle of the dirt ground. From the plug rose a cord and the cord was settled on a large wooden countertop and on top of it a black computer where the cord when. We checked our messages home for a time and then did other things. 

He said that he would protect me. I felt safe, even in this prison. Actually, considering it was a prison at all, it felt like a group home though without true walls.

I remember brining in cookies in a Tim Horton's doughnut box. The box was placed on the front desk in the prison across from my cell. The odd thing was that these weren't cookies from Tim Horton's at all, they were from Cookies By George... again, I do not know why this is significant. All I remember is looking at the chocolate chunk one that was nestled on top of the mound of cookies and thinking 'I may regret this in the morning'.

I woke up.

~~

So weird, right? And I mentioned it at a prayer group this morning just totally bemused that I would remember a dream as odd as this and the reaction that I was given was surprising. 

I was not anticipating an interpretation.

For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  -- Jeremiah 29:11

Please note that the names in this have been changed for privacy.