Dream #10- October 23, 2022: WINTER PROVISION DURING SEVERE SCARCITY

In this dream, it was a misty gray, ice-cold day. I was standing in the back yard of a house that wasn't like our home in waking life. It was completely unfamiliar. It was a large gothic Victorian brick house, with a 3rd floor attic level that was a little narrower than the rest of the house's width, creating a slightly tapered, tiered silhouette. There was spiked, wrought iron fencing around the perimeter of the roof. The house was elevated on a terraced hill, with a brick containment wall around the base of the small hill. Apparently, my mother & I had planted some small trees and vines in the previous summer, that we had picked up from Lowe's. But over the course of months we forgot about them after planting them, so now, they were growing wild, since we hadn't tended them. On this bleak frigid day with rain & sleet, I was trying to glean grapes from what was supposed to be one of these vines. They looked more like ornamental plum trees with dark red/purple ice-covered leaves, yet they had clusters of grapes on them. I called my mother's attention to them. However, the first cluster had very odd looking fruit...the grapes were furry, not fuzzy as in peach or kiwi fuzz, but furry as in slick animal fur! And they were very dark red, almost black. We were curious to see if they were edible, so I squished one to see what it's insides looked like. It looked like a normal grape inside, so I tasted it, and it tasted normal. We picked some more grape clusters that looked normal, and put them in a basket. Looking around, the leaves were becoming slick with ice, ice was collecting on the walkway, and light was starting to fade from the sky. So we hurried in as Erev Shabbat (Sabbath evening) was approaching, and we had more preparations for the meal we were hosting. As we were getting in place to prepare the meal, it felt like we were trying to make the best of a bleak and limited situation, a time of scarcity. When we went in the house, it was dark & dim because even though it was cloudy and overcast outside, there were no lights on in the house, as if there was no electricity. We walked into a low-tech, farm-house or scullery-like kitchen through a foyer that looked like the one in my grandmother's house. We were excited because we had a treat: some fresh grapes to offer our guests, which in this scenario was a luxury. These grapes were green with tinges of red. We were dividing up the clusters to portion them out for each expected guest. I was mixing dough to make a small loaf of bread, and my mother was preparing 3 Cornish hens for roasting (a big turkey or a couple large pans of chicken parts were not remotely an option). A guest arrived early to bring a small burlap sack of baby potatoes and a bag of carrots (possibly home grown) to be roasted as part of the meal. We also had a bowl of either walnuts or pecans on the table. While none of these menu items seem extravagant in our current climate, in this dream scenario, they felt like a miraculously-provided feast, even if it had to be carefully rationed.

None of the food was prepared with electricity...everything had to be cooked on a wood-burning stove that we were also relying on for heat. The rabbi from a congregation I previously belonged to, and his wife, were among the guests that arrived. There were some other familiar faces from our faith community that were there or expected to arrive. The meal preparation was taking much longer than what we're used to because (1) we had to wait on certain guests to bring an item that we were preparing, & (2) we didn't have an efficient stove with 4 burners and a large oven space to be able to cook multiple dishes all at one time. It felt like our place was a safe haven & gathering space for the people of our fellowship of Messianic believers to pool our resources during what seemed like barren & scarce times. We were all sitting in a family room that looked similar to the one in my grandmother's house, sitting & dosing bundled up, in chairs & recliners around the wood burning stove for light & warmth, as the food finished cooking. Then I woke up.