Lord of the Dance, Lord of the Dream

The other night I dreamed I was in a dance hall with many others. A big sign read, "Lord of the Dance" and the old 60's tune played loudly in the background. Jesus was there watching the dances. It was pretty chaotic cuz there were many groups learning different parts of the dance. As they learned, they would become filled with Jesus. As I type this, I realize the significance of that. We learn as we go along, we don't come to His dance knowing the steps. At the end of the dream I was in a group learning a particularly hard step and doing miserably at it. The woman teaching me was patient even as I was frustrated. And Michael Jackson was kind of milling around the place. He's dead, so maybe he was observing. On earth he had some righteous dance moves himself. Now before you get all hoity-hoity thinking Micheal is hot stepping it somewhere, I want to remind you that one never knows. Over the years the Lord brought Mr Jackson to mind and we prayed for the confused guy. We is me and the Spirit.

So as I'm waking I am literally shaking under the power of the Lord and all these images are flashing through my mind. Images of my current boundaries, the unhealthy ones, being destroyed. They tumble and whiz past me like tinker toys. I see the pastor with boobs, OK she needs a new name, get into a small toy car. She's hollers "Whee!" and off she goes. Jesus gets into a toy bi-plane and looks at me, "Come along Suzanne!" He is excited. I wake and utter His name in wonder.

Amazing how He works on our strongholds while we are aware and unaware. Once a famous prophet came to our church in Illinois. He said a lot of great things but, of course, I recall the not so great thing. He said, "The reason God talks to some in dreams is cuz they're not paying attention to Him when they are awake." Well, the Bible says "Your young men will dream dreams." Period. It doesn't say, "The dreamers will be the ones with ADHD who haven't a clue what God's up to during the daylight hours." PLUS I was a mother of very young ones at the time and I wrestled with time to find Him in my very busy life of wiping buggery noses and stinky diapers, so his words fell on me like a judgement. Today I am happy with dreams and the fact that He joins me in my sleep world. He must have worked all that out sometime while I was sleeping. Hmmm....

Rome Sweet Rome

I've been putting off blogging about Rome 'cuz nothing extraordinarily "spiritual" happened. But I guess that is how the majority of our days run anyhow, so here goes. I ate too much and some evenings I drank too much. The great news is that through all the sightseeing and walking and touring I only had one panic attack. That was in Florence as we were preparing to view "The Birth of Venus". Saw it, went out and ate a gelato on the front steps and waited for everyone else. I did get the ice cream out of it. Started my period (unexpectedly) the next day, so I guess it was a combo of things.

Michelangelo's David was in Florence too at a most run-of-the-mill museum. N asked if he'd been circumcised and I said "No, but I took care of that when a security guard had her back to me." And not to put too fine a point on the genius, but David's head and hands were overly large. Though his rear end was nicely developed and I could see why lions and bears would tremble when he came at them with his slingshots. Hmmm, did he really care for his flocks in the buff though? I don't know, maybe Michelangelo knew something we didn't. I may try that sometime, show up for work all nudie-wudie. I work with a blind woman though so, like David's sheep, she may not comment.

We stayed in a beautiful villa in an exclusive area of Rome that houses soccer stars. Never in a million years would we have been able to afford the rent- gated, on one acre, marble floors in house, fountains and pool surrounding house with olive, apricot, lemon, lime and fig trees! Wow!

The trip was funded by a friend my husband and I grew up with. He was a prankster, the kind of kid the teachers would reprimand in front of the class with a sigh and a "you're not going to amount to anything, so pay attention..." That loser started his own IT company and sold it for millions last year. And we benefited. As a teen, he also worked in our small town's magazine factory. He's always have a wad of cash. One hot summer my sister was swinging on our porch and M wanted a ride. "I'll give you $50 if you let me sit beside you and swing for 15 minutes, " he said. My sister did and he was true to his word.

So Rome was amazing and I absolutely fell in love with it. The Italians live life the way I am now gunning to live it-- leaning forward with reckless abandon. This is best reflected on the roads where lanes and speed limits are not in their rule book. We saw more cars straddling lines in the road than not, but curiously we saw only one accident.

The final day we toured the Colosseum and I almost had to leave, the blood was almost fresh in the air for me. The games had gone on for a couple centuries and did not involve Christians, but did involve a lot of most unfortunate souls. I noticed a cross that was erected in one of the entry ways and it reminded me that no matter how long injustices go on, my Jesus always has the last say.