archerThat’s as good a title for this dream as any, I suppose, although all I was doing was trying to get to someplace just past the horizon.  Why I needed to be there, I don’t know, but I was determined.

I seldom remember my dreams when  I wake, and when I do it’s usually just an emotional memory, lacking details.  I do recall that recently they have been either scary or upsetting, but what they consisted of I have no idea.  This morning’s was different.

I don’t know if this dream was influenced by the book I recently read, Legacy, A Father’s Tale, or by my enjoyment of the television series Arrow, but I was apparently an archer.  I was carrying a bow, a bit more modern than the one in the image above, and I was dressed in a manner that combined elements of modern clothing and this archer’s garb.  I don’t remember having a quiver of bows on my back, however.

The journey takes place today, or very nearly so, and I’m trying to get from wherever I am, presumably Visalia, first to a point on the other side of Ivanhoe.  But things are different.

I’m on foot, heading to wherever I’m bound.  I come to a rail line that I’m sure will take me to my destination, and I determine to follow it’s path.  The rails go into a large structure  and I’m not sure I should enter, worried that a train may come barreling through while I’m inside.  (Apparently I’m just me in this dream, not some brave fellow willing to risk all to reach my goal)  Rather than a tunnel in a hillside, this is more an enclosed rail line at ground level, with an attached concourse of some kind.  I follow the track in, and within a few yards I leave them to enter another portion of the edifice.  The area is like some kind of business/shopping complex, but it is closed, and I sense I should not be there.  Rather than having any doors I can see, I have to climb something, several somethings, to get to an open skylight/window high in the wall to get out.  I’m amazingly limber and a capable climber, it seems.  At least in my dreams!  Once I’m out, I continue walking.

Now my goal has changed from the other side of Ivanhoe to reaching a point on the other side of Goshen.  (You know, you’d think I’d be able to come up with places more interesting and attractive than Ivanhoe or Goshen.  Although folks not familiar with Tulare County California may wonder why Ivanhoe or Goshen might not be something related to the famous versions of their names, trust me.  Locals will understand why they’re not the places to be on some sort of quest.)

There’s a lot of construction going on through Goshen right now, and that was a major plot element of the next part of the dream, although not the actual construction that is happening (freeway widening project on California 99).  Someone here was building a new road, a big one.  This was also where I began crossing paths with other people in my dream.  They would notice me, and some would smile and wave, but most gave little notice to a person walking through the area with a bow in hand.

I cross the bulldozed ground that will become the road, and commit several acts of trespassing, as I make my way from southeast of Goshen to my goal northwest somewhere.  The Goshen of my dream is nothing like the real Goshen. (thank goodness. I’d hate to think Goshen holds some kind of unconscious allure for me!)  People see me, but they don’t challenge me, as I cross their lands.  It doesn’t seem anyone fears me, it’s like I’m supposed to be there, and they are not concerned.  (Undoubtably, even carrying a bow, I’m not an threatening visage, ever!)  The people who do see me seem to be quite willing to accept my appearance, smile, and are happy to allow me to continue in my journey as the archer.

Now I’ve come to a large building that stands in my way, and I have to enter it to continue.  I’ve been joined by a man who is following me, and although there’s little conversation, it seems we become friends.  He asks me a few questions, of which I now cannot remember details, and I give some non-committal answers, which I also do not remember precisely.   We’ve come to the other side of the building, and the only way out seems to be to climb a rather precarious looking, and increasingly steep, structure in a hallway.  At first it’s a floor, then some kind of rough material, then almost a rock wall.  I’m well up it, and my companion is right behind me when I decide this isn’t working, and I need to go another way.

Then I woke up.

As I said, I seldom remember my dreams.  I usually wake up with the emotional aspects of the dream still strong, but a rapidly fading memory of the events.  Once fully awake, I can’t recall the details, so I’m left with the emotional baggage and no way to reconcile my feelings!

This dream was fun, and almost lucid in nature.  I knew who and where I was, but it never progressed to a point that I knew I was dreaming.   I seemed to be enjoying being the archer, needing to get somewhere, and pleased that people were happy to let me engage my quest, all the while dressed as a cross between Jimmiejoe and Robin Hood.

Who knows, maybe tomorrow night’s dream will be the conclusion, and I’ll find out where I was heading, and why.