Frozen Dreams

Dreams are fascinating. Personally, I am enthralled by their ability to cut through the clutter of my daily mind, and shine a light on the deep, dark corners of my unconscious. Many people are intrigued by their dreams and try with all their might to remember them in the morning. Hopefully, they can interpret the meaning of last night’s dream, thereby uncovering a hidden key to their lives.
Such a hidden key may be prophetic, indicating what is to come, or it may represent our current mind and whatever it is obsessed with. Many years ago, for example, I had the good fortune of studying in Vienna, Austria. I had studied German for many years in preparation for life abroad. Once I arrived in Vienna, I became part of an intensive German school that required hours of language practice each day.

The students in our class all became good friends and spent much unstructured time together outside of class using our German, since it was the only common language we could all understand. As we conversed, I became aware of a seemingly-international goal for language students: namely, a student’s first dream in their newly-acquired language.

The idea took hold in my mind, and I wondered what it would be like to actually dream in German. Then I would feel like I really knew the language! In contrast to the disappointment I felt many mornings when a German dream had not occurred, one morning I woke up and leapt out of bed celebrating. It had happened! I had dreamt in German, and I couldn’t wait to celebrate with my friends! Several weeks ago, I woke up from a sound sleep, and had a vivid memory of a dream. As I lay in the dark room, I realized that this was my first Parkinson’s dream. Not especially worthy of celebration, but a milestone, nonetheless. In this short dream, I was walking and simply couldn’t pick my right foot up. It was completely frozen and I was immobile.

People with Parkinson’s (PWP) are very familiar with freezing, as this is a hallmark motor symptom of the disease. There are many times that I need to rehearse a step or foot movement over in my mind repeatedly before I can actually accomplish it. There are behavioral techniques and tools that help us overcome freezing, and regain our movement. I’m glad these exist in my real life, so I can avoid what I experienced in my frozen dream. There I stood, one foot frozen in place, glued to the floor.

Some notable Disney characters have sung about dreams. For instance, Cinderella’s well-known words about dreams continue to charm us and give us hope. “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” contains the glimmer of hope we all need while facing our daily struggles: “No matter how your heart is grieving/If you keep on believing/The dream that you wish will come true.”
In the ever-popular Disney film “Frozen”, the main character encourages us, as well:

“It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small/And the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all/It’s time to see what I can do/To test the limits and break through/No right, no wrong, no rules for me/I’m free.”

Summer of Balance
Day 6: May 24, 2024
Success!