i have had dreams which were significant in some way at different times. At the times of most grief or stress in my life, I have not been able to remember any dreams.
Occasionally I have dreams which seem to relate to events in my life or in a friends life. for example..
in the 80s i had a good friend (Aldo) a Chilean drama therapist. Very flamoyant, handsome, charismatic, and gay. I worked as his assistant for a while, helping him run workshops for people with & without disabilities. I helped with the face & body painting, with costumes and materials, and in other ways. Aldo was an exceptional person - the first in the 70s in australia to advocate for mentally and physically disabled people who were kept controlled by unnecessary use of valium & other medications, by suggesting that they were being unnecessarily medicated. He advocated that they should be allowed to have sexual relations like anyone else. Its hard to believe this was happening still in those days, but he broke down a lot of barriers. he put on an opera performed by people with Downs Syndrome at the sydney opera house.
I knew Aldo was HIV+, but I thought he had years to go. I hadn't seen him for a few months. One night I dreamt I went to his house in Ashfield to visit him. In reality the rooms were all painted white, and he had beautiful South American woven wall hangings, and some delicate paintings he had done on the walls, + furniture, books etc. In the dream, i went to visit him and there was no one home. the house was empty, all the walls had been painted a peach-pink colour, and there was nothing in the house except for a purple scarf on the wall.
When i woke up, i went to work and rang him to see if he was okay. I rang several times but there was no answer. At midday a friend answered his phone and told me that Aldo was in St Vincents Hospital, very ill. I went in to see him that afternoon after work. I walked into his room in the hospital. It was painted a peach-pink colour, and there was a purple scarf tied to the rails of his hospital bed.
That dream alerted me to the fact that Aldo had been hospitalised, and i was able to spend time with him in the last few weeks of his life.
when i have a problem, i ask myself for help before i go to sleep, and when i wake up in the morning the answer will have been in my dream or in my thoughts at the moment of waking up.