Haiti and a Dream

Last night I had a dream that I was in a place that had had an earthquake. Now, it was nothing like Haiti - most buildings were still standing, and there weren't people dying in the streets, but there was no power anywhere, I was separated from everyone I know and love with no idea how to find them again, and there were people taking advantage of the situation and doing bad things that I was afraid of (no detail on what they were doing, exactly, just Bad Things.)

I had been on a train of some sort, and had developed an instant bond with another woman who was sitting next to me, as it's easy to imagine could happen in a catastrophe. The train doors opened, and there were two very young children - a girl and a boy - standing there crying, so this other woman and I drew them in to us and shared the thought that we would care for them until we could find where they belonged. She took the girl, I the boy. Shortly after that, we got separated and it was just the toddler boy and me.

We walked the dark streets (somehow it looked a lot like south Minneapolis) and I tried to figure out where I was going to get food for this baby, where we were going to have shelter to sleep, how we were going to protect ourselves - or rather, keep ourselves out of harm's way so we didn't need to protect ourselves, and where-oh-where was MY family?

And that's when I woke up, crying.

Suddenly this was real, and personal, and inside of me in a way that it wasn't before.