Paddington Mouse
I know enough by now to know that if I forget something important it will come back to me in a dream. I know to write the dream down and remember where so that if I forget it again, I’ll know where to look. Such a one was the dream I had last summer about a mouse dressed as Paddington Bear.
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He came to remind me that everything is a gift and stop being picky about what turns up. I tried to get rid of him at first and threw a wooden block at his head, ‘blocking him out’ as it were, but thank goodness it didn’t kill him because when I came closer I saw he had my name pinned to his jacket. I apologized then and asked his forgiveness.
I was forgiven but not forgotten. Because in the winter his dying brother showed up at my friend’s house here in Brooklyn. He was already buried when she asked me to draw his picture, (Here) but since he had so many cousins, I had no trouble finding his likeness on Google.
It wasn’t enough. I was still thinking I could choose my gifts, and in the spring, I wrote a post about the prenatal gift shop (Here) where you pick up what you think you’ll need on your next trip to Earth. Funnily enough, while I was writing I realized the true gift was being able to connect to my soul.
Sorry, still not enough. In less than a week I thought I saw a live mouse in my house. It was only a mirage, but it jogged me into remembering the dream about the mouse dressed like Paddington Bear. So I’m drawing his picture. It’s summer again now, almost a year since he came in a dream, but by picturing him and making him visible and showing him around so others can see him, I’m making him real. Hopefully I’ll remember the next time something comes to me, no matter what it is, it’s a gift. And whether I want it or not or think I deserve it or not, I’ll accept it with grace.
