But before I get to that... had a great time at prayer and praise last night. Always encouraging to read scripture, pray in thankfulness and about burdens, and fellowship over snacks :)
Was going to try to grab some photos of the Perseid meteor shower last night seeing as I got home after midnight. Unfortunately is was too bright with the moon and a bit too cloudy. The stars I did see were beautiful though. I'm in Ohio tonight so I may try again.
If you're reading this on facebook, it's because I'm importing my feed. Started blogging again - read it in situ here: dreamsync.blogspot.com
and now for the dream...
I'm at missions conference - sitting close to a screen where a DVD is playing that is showing the classic scenery of the west - I see Bryce Canyon on the large screen. THe colors seem muted to me. I look to my left where my father is sitting next to me. "I've been there" I said, knowing that he has too. I turn my head back to the screen and see an inset of the Missionary who put the promotional DVD together - he's preaching to a group at a facility in the mountain. I am impressed by the quality of the video.
I'm at the same facility I saw in the video. No recollection of how I got there, only that I am alone and it appears to be deserted. It's in a rocky valley high in the mountains, near or in Estes Park. I am standing in the valley with the facility on my left, a rocky steppe to my right, and some open area like a trail head in front of me where the small valley opens up. The facility is built into the side of the valley and open like a bunker or a food buffet on the valley side.
I walk up to the opening and find cold packs of all shapes and sizes in the stainless steel food bins when I lean into the opening. I wonder who left them, and why no one has come back to get them. I try to start collecting them to take back but realize I don't have a bag. I walk in through a door farther down to my left and enter the area with the ice packs. They are stil cold even though it's room temperature everywhere else. I see discarded food wrappers and pamphlets and wonder why the ministry would have left all their trash up here. I decide to call my father and ask him if I should pick this stuff up.
I pull out my cell and dial him, but the call won't go through. I'm surrounded by too much metal, so I exit the facility and try again. Someone answers, but I can't understand what they are saying.
I see people start to come up the trailhead to look at the facility as if it were an attraction on the trail. A park ranger dressed in green uniform and hat - the kind with the brim all the way around like a state trooper - is checking with every group he sees to make sure they have a map. If you don't have a map, you can't be in the area. I don't have a map.
He approaches me and asks if I have a map. I try to explain why I'm here without a map, and offer to buy one from him. That is acceptable, so I pull out my wallet and hand him my visa check card. He somehow has the card cover and not the card and is very confused - almost frightened - by it. I laugh and hand him the card I thought I had just handed him.
I get a map and lay it out on one of the rock outcroppings that has a flat surface. I ask the ranger about the trails, I'm looking for one in particular called 'Tenebrae'. All the words on the map are in Latin which doesn't surprise me. But the trail I thought was tenebrae isn't - it's another Latin term that isn't familiar. The map looks a lot older than the one I just bought from the ranger. The ink is faded and old, the text in all caps.
There are three trails on the map I'm focusing on - they are aligned like a combination of a Greek lambda and pi. One trail to the north heading east and west with a slight northwest slant. That one is tenebrae. The second and third head north-south - the far west one slants northeast, the far east slants northwest, but less than the far west trail. Both have latin names starting with 'tene'. I can make out letters in both.
I ask about hiking with the group on Tenebrae but he says it starts at 10:30 and it takes two hours to get there from here. He tries to discourage me from going as the trail guide leading that group is apparently really wordy and gets on people's nerves. I find it odd that the ranger is discouraging me from going on that path.
So then I woke up. And decide to do a word search on the terms I saw.
Tenebrae = darkness
I know this term because it was the title of a Good Friday cantata I've done with the HFC choir twice. Beautiful classically arranged cantata, focused on the somberness of Christ's death. Hence the title of 'Darkness'. Interesting that the ranger in my dream discouraged me from the path of 'darkness'.
The other two were a bit of a challenge. I went to an online Latin dictionary and just looked at the words that start with 'tene' and picked out the two most like the words in my dream. I didn't read through all the meanings first and then pick them, I just picked them based on the letter structure.
Southern trail to the west: tenenciarius = a tenant
Southern trail to the east: tenebricosus = dark
In any case the only Latin I can really claim was in the dream was tenebrae. Darkness.
And I have an idea of where this is coming from, so it's not that freaky. Still, the Latin I pulled out about 'a tenant dark' is a little disconcerting...
ok...back to reality :)
