I have an appreciation for dreams.  The dreams that you have when you are asleep and the dreams you have when you are awake show you things about yourself you did not know.  They illuminate the direction you are going.

As far as sleep dreams are concerned, I had this dream one night that I had an alpine slide in my back yard.

For those of you who have never ridden an alpine slide, I’ll let my friend, Wikipedia explain what this is.

It is a long chute on the side of a hill, usually built by ski resorts to supplement summer income. A wheeled cart is used to navigate the slide. The ride is similar to a bobsled ride, except that it rolls over a smooth track — generally cement, stainless steel, or fiberglass — rather than sliding on ice.

Near the village the peaceful village
The lion sleeps tonight
Near the village the quiet village
The lion sleeps tonight

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
-Solomon Linda with the Evening Birds

Anyway, in my dream, I wasn’t going very fast down this slide.  I must have been breaking or something.  It was all very slow.  That is the way it is in dreams sometimes.  It can be slow, then speed up.  Then slow down again.  I call these the’ DVR dreams’ because a whole night seems to go by very quickly in my DVR dreams.  They are on fast forward.  Generally, they happen when I sleep on the couch, too.  But that is another matter all together.

So I’m rolling down this long slide and the end of the slide is at the back door of this long ranch style log cabin with an elevated deck where one of my kids is standing waiting to greet me as I get done with my ride.

I look over to my left down this long hill into an enormous valley and I see a rather large mountain lion.  Of course, as in all good horror movies where the main character is about to be devoured by some large animal or plant, something was about to tip off the antagonist.  In this case, it was the screeching sound of me breaking  at the end of my route which was the lion’s dinner bell alerting this majestic animal that his lunch had arrived.  Of course, just my luck that I was being served on a nice rolling platter– ready to be consumed.

This is where the fast forward effect is really vivid, because it didn’t take that mountain lion but two giant leaps to get within just a few feet of the end of this slide.  It was as if I had skipped over that commercial for the ‘wonder chamois’ and landed right at the start of my favorite program.   Only, in  this case, I’m about to be eviscerated, so that isn’t good.

It was in that moment facing this mountain lion and looking at my child standing on the deck that I thought about the two choices I had.  I could stand up and raise my arms and look as big and as mean as I possibly could, or I could lay there and hope that I made a big enough meal to forever satisfy this enormous beast.  A meal large enough that the little morsel standing on the deck wouldn’t be as appealing.  I am a pretty big guy chock-full of lean succulent meat, so in my dream state this made perfect sense to me.

So that is our message to you this week.  Keep your eyes fixed on the prize and your attitude and emotions in check.  Stand up.  Raise your arms.  Look as big and as mean as you possibly can.