Day 26: COVID19 Dreams

I am a vivid dreamer if I remember them. During this four week lockdown, I have had COVID19 related dreams. Here are three short ones.

Dream 1: The first dream I remember was from one night leading up to Easter. In my dream, I decided that I wanted to go to church on Easter (despite knowing all church services were cancelled). I made an argument in my mind, that no one will be there and that it would be safe! So I went to St. Mary's of the Angels (the church I go to in Wellington). When I arrived there, people were preparing for mass! The priests were on the entrance wearing their robes etc. I was befuddled! In my head, I was frustrated. Why wasn't I informed that a mass was going to take place? Everyone else seemed to act like it was normal. But I was still afraid of catching the virus, so I went up to the second floor to view the activities from afar. Suddenly, everyone had the same idea, and people started crowding to get up to where I was. And I just was afraid to be in contact with people. I found an escape, squeezed through small pathways out of the church, and ran! Then I woke up.

Dream 2: In my dream, I was on an airplane. I was on a 'mercy flight' to the Philippines. But because the flights were so scarce, I needed to transit somewhere else to catch my flight back to the Philippines. While on the plane, I didn't know where we will land and transit. Finally, the plane landed and I disembarked and was informed that we were in London. I never transitted or flew out of London Heathrow (so I don't really know what the airport looks like). The airport was busy, everyone was trying to catch their mercy flights back to their home countries. I was looking for my transit gate, it was supposed to be on the ground floor (I was on the second). I looked at the signs, and for some reason, my gate was nowhere to be seen. I went to various ground floor gates, taking escalators and had a hard time finding my gate. Finally, I found my gate, but no one was there. I was informed by the ground crew that the last flight out to the Philippines just left. Then I woke up.

Dream 3: I dreamt that I was back in our room in Manila. I remember the yellow walls and the two single beds. On the floor were Settlers of Catan tiles and tokens. Martha and Emil were sitting on the floor, and we just finished a game. We were laughing. It was time to have lunch, so we started packing up, putting the tokens in small ziplock bags. Then I asked myself, why am I in the Philippines? 'I know I'm in New Zealand, this must be a dream.' But I felt like I'm really there with them. The layout of the room looked like the way I remembered it. I could see what my siblings were wearing, I was touching the tiles and putting them back in the box. Then I convinced myself I was back in Manila, then I started thinking, 'If I'm here, then I can't go back to New Zealand because of the lockdown'. Then I woke up.

I don't really put much meaning to my dreams. I think they simply reflect some of the experiences and worries we have during the day.