My steps made no footprints in the sand, waves of pale blue green crashing onto the shore beside me.

It was beautiful in an unnatural way, not of the material world. I recognized this shoreline for what it was—a break between physical reality and material nonexistence.

Hm. A lucid dream.

I knew what would happen next, as I’d had these dreams before. A presence enveloped me, multiple presences, not of this world. Invisible yet somehow known to me, they propelled me upward from my place on the shore and into the sky. My body began to vibrate with this presence, as if I were being immersed in an atmosphere of pressure higher than my body was designed for.

My spirit was escaping from my body, released by these beings.

This is when I normally woke myself up, too frightened to know what happens next.

But tonight I decided to stay.

I rose higher and higher into the sky, moving faster than the speed of light. I resisted the urge to close my dream eyes, watching instead as the earth grew smaller.

Fear is an illusion.

Heart racing, I saw it below me. The curve of the earth itself as I floated into space above it, the beings slowing so I could take in the sight. At this height, the earth appeared paradoxically larger than ever, and more full of life.

White clouds twisted into amber storms, oceans of every blue and green embraced edges of brown and gray land. In the distance were brilliant, gleaming stars, sparkling and surrounding the earth like a proud audience.

Awestruck, I wondered why I was here.

The beings that had brought me sent the wordless message that there was no purpose for this trip. This was a gift that was being given to me because I wasn’t too afraid to accept it.

I smiled my silent thanks and found myself back in bed.

Today was my birthday and the start of a new year–I had a feeling it was going to be a good one.

(C) 2021 Barbara Gray – no content may be used or reproduced without permission of the author.