The other night, I found myself in a dream so vivid and strange that it felt like I had stumbled into an alternate universe. Picture this: I was a tourist in this otherworldly place, trying to take a perfect shot of a dome-shaped building that seemed almost mystical. As I stepped back to capture the whole scene, the image became blurry, frustratingly out of focus. But as soon as I stepped in closer, things sharpened—only for people (and a shape-shifter of all things!) to get in my way. It was like an endless dance of trying to capture a moment that kept slipping through my fingers, obstructed by strange figures.

Naturally, my first thought when I woke up was, “Man, I wish my mom were here.” She had this trusty dream interpretation book and always loved playing detective with my odd nocturnal stories. I can just imagine her flipping through the pages, trying to find what shape-shifters and blurry domes symbolize. It was one of those small joys—figuring out the meaning behind dreams with her—that I miss the most.

Was this dream about obstacles in life? Am I too focused on stepping back when I should be zooming in? Or maybe I’m just surrounded by shape-shifters (a.k.a. daily life challenges) that keep interrupting my clarity. Who knows? What I do know is that I’m left pondering these dream symbols and wishing for one more of those mother-daughter dream decoding sessions.

And hey, at the very least, this dream would have made for a fascinating chapter in her dream book, right?