Dream #13 - December 19, 2023: (DON'T LOOK BACK) BYPASSED EVACUATION TO HOLY LAND TO GO NOWHERE WITH COLLEGE FRIENDS

In this dream, I was with a group of people in an airport terminal.  There was a sense of urgency to get out of the U.S.  It wasn’t limited to one targeted group or demographic that was trying to evacuate (ie: one ethnicity or culture group, or democrat vs. republican, liberal vs. conservative). Rather, people from all walks of life and across all demographics were trying to get out…rich & poor, Black,White & everyone in between, rural & urban, white collar & working class, liberal & conservative, Christian & non-Christian.  Everyone was fleeing for the same reason.  From what I recall, there were some travel restrictions.  There were circumstances that were restricting people’s movement, kind of like during COVID.  However it wasn’t a pandemic in this case.  Instead, there was a sense of impending doom, the sense of escaping a new incoming regime.  I was sitting in the terminal with my luggage.  My mom & I had both gotten to the airport, but there had been some chaos or mix up in trying to get a connection out, because the majority of flights were grounded so that it didn’t matter if you had purchased a ticket or boarding pass in advance.  It was similar to the chaos that was depicted in the news of people fleeing Afghanistan when U.S. troops pulled out & the Taliban returned to power.  From what I can recall, my mother and I were separated, not because of the chaos or out of control circumstances, but because we had a plan to split up so that she would negotiate & wait for something to open up at one terminal, & I would do the same at a different one, so that whichever one of us managed to find a flight first, would call the other one to tell them to report to the right terminal.  So she wasn’t next to me for most of this dream, but I knew she was present in the background.  

While sitting in the terminal, I happened to see a group of girlfriends that I went to undergrad with back when I was a student at a prestigious private HBCU (Historically Black College/University).  It was 3 of my friends from undergrad, some of whom I pledged with into a historic Black sorority (which I renounced over 10 years ago).  They all represented the post-graduate stability and success that is expected of the alumni of my HBCU.  While there were different levels of affluence among them, they all had achieved successful careers, home ownership in neighborhoods ranging from middle-class to affluent, & established families.  All 3 are living the “bougie" (bourgeoisie) African-American dream of stability, self-sufficiency, & affluence that we were all groomed to chase at our HBCU. I greeted them when I saw them, & was glad to see them, but I didn’t spend too much time talking with them because I had a knowledge that I wasn’t sharing a destination with them, since for most of our post-grad lives, my life has had a different focus than theirs.  Meanwhile, I was on and off the phone (via Whatsapp) with an Israeli friend of mine, with whom I had spent about 2 years taking him through the New Testament, reading & discussing it with him 4 days per week, which was possible because I am self-employed and could flex my appointment schedule around that ministry.  He was making last resort arrangements in Israel to have a chartered plane come & pick up me, my mom, & everyone associated with our household and Bible study group/faith community.  He said he had a contact who had spoken to the U.S. embassy in Israel, as well as a connection with Israel’s department of immigration to grant us access to the country & living arrangements.  He said he didn’t know if it would be permanent but he knew it would be for at least a few months for us to get our bearings & figure out our next move, since everything was happening so fast.  But he told me to follow up with him by a certain time, by which if a flight hadn’t opened up for us, to let him know to send the charter flight to collect me & my people (household & faith family).  So there was a deadline for letting him know that we needed to take him up on the offer. 

Another hour or so passed, & different groups of people had scored flights, leaving in increments depending on their own personal arrangements/successful bidding.  Each time a handful successfully acquired a flight out, the remaining people waiting would grow more anxious & desperate - we had already waited a few hours.  I was starting to get a little antsy, but I kept watching the clock because I knew in the back of my mind that I had a safety net that I needed to respond to by a certain time.  Finally, I saw my bougie college girlfriends get up & collect their carry-on luggage, some of it Louis Vuitton, & start heading into the boarding corridor. They had on luxury athleisure track suits, styled hair, made-up faces, & glittering wedding bands on manicured hands.  They came up to me on the way out, and one of them said, “Hey girl, are you good? Or are you still trying to get a flight out?” I said “Yeah, but I have a backup flight option if nothing opens up by a certain time.”  One of the others said “You know you don’t have to wait, I have special access passes for an exclusive flight & I have an extra one you can use. Why don’t you come with us?”  At this point, the airport had people from all over the country because this was the only airport left with flights out of the country, the remaining international airport.  All the others in the country were domestic flights only.  So I don’t know where in the country we were.  But those of us who were there already had to hop a couple of domestic flights just to get there.  This felt like the final way out, so I went with them & boarded the flight, not thinking about how this would affect my mom or others associated with us.  We got seated in first class, & it felt like we were almost the only people on the flight, or at least in the section, as if it was a private flight.  The interior was a sleek white with gray marble accents, with light gray leather seats.  A flight attendant was helping us get our carry-on in the overhead compartment.  Another flight attendant was offering refreshments, & I spotted 2 of my college friends receiving cold, frosted flutes of champagne.  I had my usual pre-flight jitters, but the flight taxied & took off smoothly, with no turbulence, inclining & arching left as altitude was reached, based on what I could tell from the view through the window to my left.  We settled into the flight and socialized.  After about 2 hours passed, the announcement went out that we reached our destination & were coming in for a landing.  I felt that the flight was unusually short for it to be an international flight to anywhere I wanted to be. 

When we got off from the plane & entered the airport, my heart almost stopped when I realized the airport was familiar because I had been there before. It was 1 of the airports that mom & I had gone through to finally get a flight to the last international airport I had just come from, where my mother still was.  That little junket with my girlfriends from undergrad took me back to a domestic flight airport.  My head was reeling as I was trying to figure out how long it would take me to get a flight back to the international airport, & whether or not it was possible to get back to the international airport in time to contact my Israeli friend to send the charter flight for me, mom & my Bible fellowship family.  I started panicking, thinking of what I may have forfeited for myself & for those relying on me, by going after the wrong things,  along with the wrong people from a season that God had already closed in my life.  Then I woke up.