By: Layne Dalfen
dream analyst
http://www.haveagreatdream.com
I've had so many Oprah dreams in the last 14 years that it's funny how at this point we know each other fairly well. I'm not at the place where I'm "comfortable" with her like I would be with one of my waking life friends, but close enough that I am staying at her home while I'm working on putting together one of her shows.
In the dream we are at a staff meeting and instead of me pitching Oprah on an idea, it's Oprah who pitches the show to ME! She's explaining at the same time exactly how she'd like to see it look once it's set up. Later on in another scene, I'm sitting on a plastic chair in an office. The chair is one of those that has a scooped, rounded seat. It's like a bowl or a well. Oprah and one of her producers are at the complete other end of the room, so I am fairly private. I'm not sure if I am even in a bathroom but may be because in the next scene, which flows (literally) into immediately after this one, I pee in the chair!
Now this is all okay. I mean I feel safe....until I stand up and see that there is a pool of pee in the seat of the chair! I have to be swift and careful about the way I clean it up. In this part of the dream I am in a bathroom-type of room, but there is still an element of exposure. I see a towel only a few steps away from me and get up to quickly grab it, but the towel is the only clean one in the room. For one I don't want to dirty a clean towel and secondly, if I use one that is already soiled and wet, it won't even be noticed that I peed. So that's what I do. I take one of the already used dirty towels to clean up the mess.
I am not sure if I was in Oprah's home yet or not though I feel like it was. In this new scene, I AM in her home, where I am staying and after the bathroom scene am in my room getting ready for a meeting that's taking place back at her offices. I am not under the impression she is going to this meeting. It's for me and a senior producer along with a few others. I know the man I am to meet with is quite senior.
I am in my room, racing to get ready, but nothing is going right. I can't get my necklace on. It's all tangled. The bathroom thing took up too much of my time. I have a blue outfit on and an orange scarf, but it just doesn't look right. I end up changing the scarf for another one. Then I'm debating about changing to a black outfit, because the blues and browns seem like too many different colors. I feel like I looked too mushed up, color wise. And even the jewelery; the rings don't seem right. On the table lamp I notice a big black-stone ring I have and decide I want to wear that. With all this going on, I'm in my room. I don't seem to have a watch on me, but am sure I am at least an hour late for this meeting! I am frantic. What are they going to think?
I ask my daughter Emma-Jo to drive me to a busy street so I can get a cab. She's telling me I should call for one. I disagree and I feel angry because I have to move quickly and don't have time to be waiting for a taxi. I'm trying to just slip out of the house, and don't you know it? The minute I walk out of my room, finally dressed, Oprah also comes out of HER room! She's with a man.
The three of us walk down the winding staircase together. I know she knows I am so late at this point. I'm walking down the stairs very carefully as I'm wearing high heels. I see myself planting the heels into the plush carpet carefully with each step so as not to fall. I'm explaining as I walk down the stairs with them closely behind me that I wasn't feeling well.
We're on the main landing now. Oprah, I now realize, is going to this meeting too. She and the man go into the kitchen. I want to leave the house. Emma-Jo says well, now you'd be going to the meeting with Oprah in the limo. I'm saying to her to forget that idea. I am leaving now and she's going to take me to a taxi......So I wasn't comfortable enough to join them in the limo and anyways in the dream Oprah didn't invite me!
I do remember thinking though as I was coming down the stairs, that it's okay and it will be okay. I have a big ring on. Somehow this has me feeling a certain confidence inside myself that she knows I have worked hard and have achieved some level of success, even though nowhere near hers, but then again who has?
The Analysis
In typing this dream I am aware of a terrific "play on words" in the dream, which actually clicked me into the event or issue that spurred the dream. Further it's that same image and how I dealt with it that helps me come to the solution to the problem.
I was "pissed off" at my daughter yesterday. The dream helps me notice how often when I am upset with her I just say what I want to... yes....., but then it just gets glossed over and on to the next thing. There is NO repercussion! I just kind of "sop it up with an already dirty cloth". The already dirty cloth represents all the other times the same behavior has been sopped up and not dealt with in a helpful way that promotes any change.
So I am set to remedy this particular issue and this morning am not going to pretend nothing happened yesterday. I am not sopping up the mess like it's not there anymore. I am going to take action.
The hurried-ness and pressure to get my act together and feeling late for a time line has to do with my cleaning and organizing the work on my desk. Some of the tasks have really fallen to the wayside, but this is the week I have decided to get it all up to date, open new files for the year, pack away the old, etc. And I am in a race to do it all before the holiday next week.
As with the taxi in the dream, in waking life, Emma-Jo was not willing to help me get to where I had to go. She didn't even want to take me part way.
I am also expecting a certain upcoming measure of success, though I am being careful about getting too excited too soon. The appearance and relationship with Oprah shows me how much more comfortable (though not completely yet) I am with success. I am getting closer to it though! The process about getting there has me feeling impatient. It has taken so long and so much hard work, I almost feel I am late getting there. It's my impatience, my frustration.