7 Quick Takes

1.
How awesome is it to come out of the shower and be asked,"Are we going to Mass today?" by children who are already dressed in Church appropriate clothing? Why yes, yes we are!

2.
It's even more awesome when your 5 year old sees Father D. heading into the vestibule to get ready for Mass and pipes up with, "Oh no! I didn't check my vestments today! That's OK. I can just check Father's."

3.
The absolute best though is when you didn't plan on going to Mass, but you find yourself there anyway (through the grace of your children) listening to your favorite priest give the homily that you needed to hear most in your life right now. Heaven on earth!

4-7.
I had an interesting dream last night. I usually don't put much stock in dreams, but its hard not to pay attention to dreams about tornadoes because they are a recurring theme for me. Usually I find myself somewhere high above the ground, like the top floor of a skyscraper, the top of a moving 18 wheeler or the bell tower of a Church. It varies, but it is always a place high enough that I can look out at the horizon and see that I am surrounded on all sides by tornadoes. Some are close. Some are far away. Sometimes, I will just be trying to get us all to shelter and sometimes I will be looking for someone; a child, someone I know, usually not my husband. I always know where he is even if he isn't right there with me.

Well, last night, I was sitting in a new dorm building during a college reunion weekend and the weather is threatening twisters. Like always, I knew where Husband was and that he was safe. I had BigBoy on my lap, The Professor was calmly reading a book next to me, but I couldn't find the girls. A small twister passed over us and I held onto the door frame that was next to me. Everyone else thought it looked like the danger was over but I knew better and set out to find the girls. (There is never just one tornado in my dreams.) Shortcake came running up to me fairly quickly and I asked her where Sunshine was. She was playing in the jungle behind the baseball bleachers. Hey, I didn't write this story. Oh wait. I guess I did. Sorry.

So I ran to the baseball stadium and I'm screaming her name over and over when I notice a giant, white tornado swirling very slowly right on top of the pitcher's mound. It was very ominous looking. After jumping over some friends who were camped out on the bleachers in sleeping bags, I found Sunshine helping other little girls to safety in this overly landscaped area that did kind of look like a jungle.

Bless your heart if you are still reading. The reason why I thought this dream was odd was because I found at the end of the dream, that I had control over the tornado in the infield. I started thinking about where to look for Sunshine and began wishing the tornado away from the area I was headed and sure enough, it tilted the opposite way. So by the time I found her, it wasn't so threatening and I was pretty calm. I woke up shortly after coming to that realization and expected the dream to quickly fade from my mind. It hasn't.

So my question is... can you have a psychological breakthrough while you sleep?
What good does that do you?