Real Dream Interpretation
by Juliette Sterner

A dreamy woman sent us this dream:

I was in the house I lived in with both parents before they got divorced.  The kitchen had been remodeled and now it had all pink Corian countertops.  My dad had left frying pans on all the burners with cheese wedges in them and the burners on (gas stove).  I hurried around extinguishing the fires (felt I had to do this).

My dad then came back - he didn't mention the pans - and gave me breakfast.  Breakfast was 2 unbroken eggs he had cooked in the oven - they looked like hard boiled eggs - not like they had burnt in the oven.  I opened a side of one and it was cooked somewhere between soft and hard boiled. 

I'd love to know what it means!  The eggs coming out of the oven part is odd - especially since I should start my period any day now.  I looked up eggs and ovens in my dream dictionary but nothing seemed applicable.

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Thank you, Dear Dreamer, for telling us your dream. 

 No matter what the content is, or the feel of a dream, if I can see it as a gift, I'll be more likely to want to open it.  When I have a dream that is set in one of my childhood homes, I look at it at least two ways.  1) This dream has come to help me resolve something from the past, especially if it's a recurring dream, and 2) This dream has come to inform me about something in my present or future.  The two are not mutually exclusive, mind you.  

 The dream is yours, so it is up to you to decide what it has for you.  But here, Dear Dreamer, here are some things to chew on (or dream over).

 You are alone in the kitchen, the place that is often seen as the center of family life, the place where nourishment is prepared.  It's also a place to get out of, if you can't stand the heat.

 Your father left after he turned up the heat on every burner.  Even though you didn't see him do it, and he didn't acknowledge it, you know he did it.  He started fires and then left.  You felt responsible to douse the fires he started.  Where is your mother? 

 The kitchen had been remodeled with countertops made of pink Corian.  Corian is advertised as a remarkably resilient substance, resistant to staining and cutting.  If you scorch Corian, it can be sanded out.  Corian's color is solid, it is not on the surface like it would be with a veneer or laminate.  But what of the color?  Pink is the color of tenderness, vulnerability, of little girls, of our hearts, our insides.   This countertop, the surface upon which meals are prepared, is resilient and vulnerable at the same time.  If the countertop had a name, what would it be? 

 Ok then, cheese wedges?  Cheese is the clotted form of our first food, milk.  A wedge is used to split things apart.  You mentioned your parents' divorce.  What or who were the wedges splitting the family apart?  Was there some way you felt your father heated up the wedges and then left?  Is it connected to your earliest meals of milk?  Milk gone sour? 

 Breakfast is the meal that marks the end of a period of not taking sustenance while we are asleep. Your father gave you eggs to break your fast, whole in their shells, cooked in the oven.  In many traditions, eggs are associated with fertility rituals and celebrations.  These eggs have been cooked to a midrange between soft and hard.  By being neither, noncommittal, perhaps they will be more acceptable to more people.  Why two?  Do you need two?  I think again of your mention of the divorce.  Did you need two parents, and did you feel they tried to be noncommittal (not hard, not soft) for your benefit?

 There is a lot of symbolism and material to look at here.

 If this were my dream, I'd ask myself what each of the pieces of the dream have to say to me.  I also might look at each element as if it were an aspect of my life or my personality. 

 And let me make this clear: this dream is for you.  Perhaps it's a gift to show you how you may have felt about marriage.  Any kind of marriage, including work partnerships.  Do you always feel responsible for extinguishing fires?  I see you in this dream as an observer, then a reactor, then a recipient.  How do you feel in each role?

What was the overall feeling of the dream?  What would you name this dream?  If you had to come up with one word to describe this dream, what would it be?

*******

There, wasn't that fun and painless?  We can all learn more about ourselves by what we see in another's dream.   Will you send us one of yours?

Please note, as of December 2004, we are no longer accepting dream submissions.

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Revised: December 10, 2004