Date: 9/2/2016
By Pattye
I was with my mom, my husband, and my children. We were Downtown (Detroit) to attend an event that I had been quite excited about. We were climbing some stairs, and my daughter's ankles began to bother her. I stopped my mom to let her know that I was going to wait with my daughter and take it more slowly, but that she could go ahead of us. I have no idea how she interpreted what, to me had been a reasonable, straightforward statement, but I could only assume she read into it something that I had not intended. She blew up. She went off on me and just kept going until I was in tears. It got bad enough that I had to leave. I got my husband's attention and had him take the kids and give me his keys so that I could go sit and wait in the truck. I was distraught. As I was walking back to the truck, I ran in to the former mayor of my town who I was good friends with. (I was still crying, and remained so for the rest of the dream.) He was leaving the same presentation we had been going to, and let me see pictures and video he had taken of it. He than took me down to the beach where his girlfriend and her friend were, thinking they might be able to cheer me. They offered suggestions that they enjoyed/had found empowering such as learning to fly a plane (which did NOT appeal to me at all,) before finally asking what I wanted to do/enjoyed. At that moment, looking out over the water, I realized that that was where I wanted to be. Sitting where the water met the shore and listening to the waves crashing around me. While I was still distraught, the sights, sounds, and smells of the water brought me back to mindfulness, and I knew everything would be okay.