Night Mirror ~ This week I am mustering the courage to delve much deeper into my personal history. Some of my earliest memories involve dreams. When I was a toddler I used the words “night mirror” for “dream.” I remember the pain and disappointment that I felt when my mother informed me that the word was “nightmare” and that it meant a bad dream. As toddlers, my brother Steven and I fought constantly. I thought that I hated him until I had a vivid dream in which he got on his tricycle and pedaled away. He wasn’t coming back! I was so relieved when I realized that it was only a dream. We still fought throughout our childhood, but thanks to that dream I never forgot that I loved him, no matter how angry he made me. My family had a habit of sharing our dreams every morning. One morning, at the Mott Cabin, my dad and I were surprised to learn that we had both dreamt the same thing! We both dreamt that a doe came walking down the road in front of the cabin. She stopped out front and we could communicate with her with our minds without words. She welcomed us there and we thanked her. Then in my dream I saw a group of beautiful women wearing gauzy gowns dancing together. Each gown was a single bright color (no two the same color). They had long scarves that matched their dresses. The scarves swirled in the air as the women spun around. At the end of my dad’s dream he saw a group of marching soldiers in army green uniforms. A few years later, after we had moved to the Golden Bear Mine Bunkhouse, my mom’s friend Valorie (aka Star Lady) gave me a dream journal. I was twelve. The journal had quotes on the bottom of each page that related to dreaming. I diligently started writing down my dreams. Partway through the journal I came to a page that had a quote about the aborigines of Australia. Their children are taught that if they confront an enemy in a dream they can turn the dream around by offering the threat or enemy a gift. Shortly after that I was having a nightmare in which a pack of dogs was chasing me. Suddenly I knew that I was dreaming. I remembered the quote about the aborigines. I stopped running and turned around to face the dogs. I had nothing in my hands but I held them out with the intent of giving them a gift. The dogs immediately started licking my hands and acting happy! I have worked with dreaming ever since. The ability to wake up in a dream (lucid dreaming) comes and goes in phases. Most of my dreams are the normal processing dreams that we all have every night, whether we remember them or not. Occasionally, I’ll have a dream that FEELS different than a normal dream. Recently, on the night of Nov. 1st/2nd I had such a dream. A desire to share it inspired this week’s article. The dream: I was observing a scene in Israel. There was a beautiful river flowing across the land. The river was full of people; people of all ages, Jews and Palestinians. They were standing in the river and had been put there until they worked things out. I observed a Jewish man wearing a cap standing face to face with a Palestinian man. The man in the cap was jumping up and down as he spoke while the other man remained calm. Then somebody made a racist comment regarding Palestinians. A petite man with blue eyes, blonde shoulder-length hair and a sparse reddish brown beard was sitting on the bank of the river. He was wearing a robe made of tan cotton sackcloth. He picked up a handful of earth. As he scattered it on the ground he said: “We are all made of the same earth”. Then I saw a dead child in the river, just as a man came running down the bank with another dead child in his arms. The children were both wrapped in black cloth. The man was weeping as he laid the dead child next to the river. There was an outcry and everyone in the river started yelling: “They know something! They know something that they are not telling us!” I looked at the two dead children’s bodies, now lying side by side on the bank of the river. One was Palestinian and one was Jewish. The blonde man picked up a handful of earth and repeated his words as he scattered it over the children: “We are made of the same earth.” I felt emotionally detached, but acknowledged the deep sorrow and anger. I wondered to myself: “Will we ever remember that we are one?” End of dream. About the author: As a kid in 1975, Rae Bell (aka Pauline) moved with her family to the Ruby Mine area located between Alleghany and Downieville. She and her husband have lived in Alleghany proper since 1992. If you have news or suggestions to share, please send an email to: raebell44@gmail.com, or mail to: PO Box 919, Alleghany, CA 95910.