Dreams… gifts to teach us

It seems to run in the McCutchan family. Or they have just become aware of it and know to pay attention.
Mac and Margaret McCutchan smiled gently, as is their way, as they told about their experiences with what is considered mysterious to many others. Mac, a retired science teacher with a graduate level education, explained, “Someday we may be able to explain it in a scientific way.”
At first he found it was even hard to convince himself that these experiences were real! But now he admitted that he accepts them.

They were talking about dreams. But they differentiate certain dreams from the usual ones.
Mac had a vivid dream of a former fellow teacher. He saw him busy in his classroom. Then he found out that the teacher had died. But Mac was comforted by his dream. “It leaves you with such a good thought”, he explained.
Then this happened to him again about another very special college teacher from the early ‘40s. He then learned of his death through a phone call to the alumni office.

Their children, Cara and Alan, both had dreams when their "Grandpa Bolton" died. He was a favorite with the children. He lived on the east coast, right on the Atlantic ocean. They visited him while Mac was taking some college courses for a couple of summers.
And during one later visit, Cara spent the summer helping to care for him. At the end of her visit she had to leave early in the morning. She found no chance to say good-by. This simple event, although presumably understood by her beloved grandpa, bothered Cara.
One night she had a vivid dream about him. She noticed he wasn’t wearing his thick heavy glasses. He told her it was all right that she hadn't had the chance to say good-by. But he wanted to say good-by to her.
Soon a letter came in her mail from her mom and dad explaining that Grandpa Bolton had died. Her brother Alan revealed that he had also had a similar and very vivid dream. “I got word from Grandpa too.” he explained.

Another dream of Cara’s comforted the family when Margaret’s sister-in-law, Joannie passed away. It was at their Christmas dinner on the family farm when Cara was visiting that she questioned if anyone had any news about Aunt Joannie?
Her dad, Mac, “stopped short and her mom started to cry”, she wrote. In the busyness of the season her parents had tried to contact her but hadn't reached her. And then forgot that she didn’t know.
Mac explained, "Cara, Aunt Joannie died last week". All conversation around the table stopped.

Cara then told about her dream. “ I woke early from an intense dream. When I got up I wrote a note about it on my calendar because it seemed rare, unusual and purposeful.”

She saw herself in a small church. Her attention was drawn to a woman seated quietly in the center of the room. “I realized it was my Aunt Joannie when she leaned back and lifted up her beautiful, serene face, with a powerful, totally centered and mesmerizing presence about her. She was gently smiling, in a characteristic manner of caring and detachment, aware that our attention had now been drawn to her.

"Her focus was clearly beyond us, on what was taking place in her own heart and spirit. She began to sing, in a deep clear voice, what seemed to be a traditional yet personal song about the loved ones we’ve lost, not to be afraid nor lonely, for we will be together again soon.

“The words were clear in the dream ­but I can only summon the sense of them now. There was an old sorrow mixed with a calm, confident joy and anticipation that she was intentionally communicating to us, as if she were preparing for a spiritual picnic with cherished loved ones she’s been separated from".

Cara concluded, “Sometimes one wakes from a dream which has that unusual intensity that is meant for waking us, so we will remember the message. And now I know that what I saw and heard was of Aunt Joannie in a beautiful transition.

“I am grateful to have experienced a moment of it. It was a blessing.”

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