It’s been an uncomfortable start of the year. Several items in our household broke down, work projects were put on halt, winter regressed to autumnal levels, then tried to perk itself up without the help of the sun. (When will it learn? Perking up is only doable with solar power in place.)
As I had a bit of a fever, I slept in this morning. More sleep equals more dreams, which usually delights me, as my dreams tend to be puzzles that, once solved, offer comfort or consolation.
This morning was no different. I dreamt about a surprise visit to a friend in Switzerland. She lived there with her husband and two children, had a baby on the way. Her house was tiny, they had a beautiful view of the Swiss Alps, the kids read books, my friend knit baby sweaters, her husband cooked dinner and baked bread.
While I was there, they had lots of neighbors and friends popping by for a chat. Nobody seemed to have work engagements, nobody was in a hurry. The topics discussed ranged from philosophy to the weather to the use of lemon peel in cookie dough. I rejoiced in the warmth of their simple life, trying hard not to think of the mess awaiting me back home. (In the dream I could not recall what that entailed, though I did know the mess equaled “X cubed” – X being a bearable level of messiness. Yup, even in my dreams, the brain is on fire.)
‘What will you do when it all ends?’ I asked my friend one evening, after dinner. Her husband and children were off to help a friend, my friend sat on the sofa drinking tea, I lovingly took care of the washing up.
‘What makes you think it will end?’ she replied.
And then I woke up.
I had some breakfast, read the newspaper and got dressed, ignoring the bleak January sky.
‘You do not even have a friend in Switzerland,’ my brain muttered. ‘So why there? And why would it not end? Everything comes to an end – fact of life.’
‘Every ending is the beginning of something new,’ I retorted, ‘though I must confess this time round winter does its best to contradict that old saying.’
Then my brain found a connection – the Swiss referendum regarding the introduction of a basic income for everyone, and declared the puzzle solved.
The colours of January. I found them in my dreams.