I went out early for a short walk before driving to the airport in Tampa at 7:30 to pick up my daughter and her boyfriend. Before waking, I had a memorable, astonishing, vivid dream. I was at our home in Sherborn, looking out across the field toward the river. It was early morning, and the sky was bright - suddenly brighter than any normal morning sky, as if something was profoundly changed about the yard and field. The light was pouring in from a new opening. I remarked to my husband that I thought a tree, a very large tree with a large canopy might have fallen during the night. I walked up the narrow trail that runs from our yard to Rocky Narrows by the brook, and I opened a door (where of course there is no door) and the door opened to an ocean view! Suddenly, the ocean appeared where the woods should have been on a bright clear morning. Indeed, a large tree had fallen and the ocean had taken its place. So, on the front of the yard, the Charles River still ran, but now in the back of the house was an ocean! The birds - there were many of all shapes and sizes, were swimming all over the ocean like fish, dipping and diving and swimming beneath the surface. It was awesome and gorgeous and surprising to realize we now had an ocean view - and so suddenly, and I was awestruck and also a bit anxious to realize we had an ocean so close to our house. I couldn’t stop thinking about this dream all day. It was lovely to greet my daughter and her boyfriend, and my daughter, in the car, told me she had not heard the answer from graduate school - whether or not she was accepted and might not hear until next week. But, later, at dinner, she confessed to her father and I that she had lied to me in the car about grad school because she wanted to tell us the good news when we were together: yes! She actually did hear, and was accepted at the grad school of her choice! And we celebrated even though they both had hot feet, having burnt them in the sun on the beach where they missed putting the sunscreen. It was so sunny and hot and I swam quite a bit in the Gulf, but the kids said they thought it was cold, and, of course it wasn’t, it was just right, and I swam so happily in the salt water, buoyant and happy as a New England born and bred bird-fish.
