They Really Don’t Belong Inside
I had just stepped into the hall on the second floor when I saw the black bear down at the end. Beating a retreat back down the stairs, I started through the sitting room, only to be confronted by a smaller, blondish cinnamon bear coming in from the next room. Both of us were startled and retreated a bit. I headed for the storm door to my left, but it wouldn’t open.
The blonde bear came back in, and I threw a lamp at it while struggling with the door. Four inches was not enough. It was dark outside, and I couldn’t see why the door wouldn’t open. This time, I threw a pillow that was on the couch. The door opened six inches. Still not enough.
The door was glass, but too thick for me to bust through. It opened out, though, so if I could get just a little more oomph, I figured I could get it opened enough to roll out and to safety. I had one pillow left and no time. As the bear charged, I tossed the pillow, launched off my right foot to add momentum to my left shoulder pushing on the door and rolled.
Right out of bed.
It was a hard landing.
My husband jumped out of bed yelling, “What was that?” as he turned on the light.
“Um, I fell out of bed. I’m alright. I think.”
I was still tangled in bedcovers, having pulled them almost completely off the bed with me. I hadn’t hit the nightstand, thankfully, but I did hit my forehead on the gallon bottle of distilled water for my CPAP machine. Who would have thought it would hurt that much? There’s no visible bruising, but it is still tender to the touch six days later.
My right knee, on the other hand, took the brunt of my fall. The next morning, there was a large lump on the top of my kneecap, like it had been hit with a baseball. The bruising didn’t start until the second or third day. It’s quite colorful now, blood having drained to different parts as it recovers.
I’m not prone to falling out of bed. In fact, most people aren’t. Most adult falls from bed occur when the person is awake and loses their balance or are too weak to support themselves properly. The last time it happened to me, I was wide awake. My husband likes to cuddle in his sleep. I’d gotten too hot, and rolled to my other side, not realizing we were already at the edge of the bed. I blame it on the foam pad that has no edge to give warning. That time, I was able to land on my feet without incident. He didn’t even wake up.
I am, however, prone to vivid dreaming. Sleep issues run in the family, from vivid dreams to night terrors to sleep talking, to sleep apnea, and possible narcolepsy. I once compared some dreams with a cousin. Where I saw vivid dreams, she saw alien abduction and past lives. Who knows which one is right?
It was hard for my husband to understand early on why I didn’t sleep well with the television on. He works on the road so much that the TV becomes his white noise to mask out hotel and RV park noises around him. But when he woke up one time because I was talking back to the TV, he relented.
Since I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and started using a CPAP machine, I don’t wake up as much, so I don’t remember my dreams as much. But I have done enough dream work to have a pretty good idea of what was going on with this one.
Recently, my husband has been dealing with health issues, seeing a lot of doctors and going through a lot of testing. Just when we get our heads wrapped around one thing, another pops up. So the bears represent the “threats” that might be behind the ailments.
But why bears? Pretty simple. I have a bracelet with bears stamped on it that I like to wear, especially when I need courage. The bear is a symbol or courage in many First Nations cultures. It’s been literally in front of my eyes a lot lately. Plus, there were some bear home invasion videos on TV not long ago. I also knew a guy who had one break into his home and trash the place. But, dreams or house, they really don’t belong inside.
As for the actual fall, if I hadn’t been tangled in the covers, it never would have happened. Unlike my husband, who likes to wrap up in a cocoon, I like to stick my feet and/or legs out a lot. To get wrapped up like that is very unusual. So unusual, that my mind took the steps to override the normal REM muscle freeze that keeps us from acting out our dreams on a regular basis. It took effort to make that roll!
Our brains are fascinating and mysterious. New technology is bringing more to light, yet there remains much that we don’t understand in the physical, mental, and spiritual realms. But I can’t endorse falling out of bed as a reason to look into such things.
Grace, Peace, Hugs — and Sweet Dreams!
If you ask my, she would agree about my mind being mysterious. She’s always asking me how or why did I think of that
My husband just shakes his head!