(Wednesday, October 8, 2025)
Before I went on my bike ride today around Nokomis and Harriet, I saw a monarch hanging out on my zinnias. I’ve never seen that before. On my way back from Harriet I rode past a little car with a monarch image on their Minnesota license plate. Google says monarchs are attracted to zinnias for nutrition ahead of their journey to Mexico.
(Monday, October 6, 2025)
I had a wonderful weekend staying at Bonnie and Paul’s beautiful house on Leech Lake. Bonnie had recently sent a letter to her son Kevin (who lives in Denmark). She is waiting for his reply. We watched the Vikings on Sunday morning, playing in London. The coaches for both teams are named Kevin. I headed home after the game and on my long drive back to the city I saw three billboards with the name Kevin: one in Walker, one near Hackensack, and one further down highway 10.
A smaller synchronicity: Before the game, we watched CBS News Sunday Morning. One of the nice interviews was with Daniel Day-Lewis. I looked him up later on Wikipedia and discovered his birthday is two days after mine. Denise: April 27, 1957. Daniel: April 29, 1957.
(Tuesday, September 30, 2025)
I stand at the edge of a huge lake, which reminds me of Mille Lacs. A male friend is next to me. We each hold small glass bottles, shaped like drinking cups. The water further out in the lake has some kind of chemistry, a healing benefit, but I don’t recall what it is, how it works.
The lake is shallow and still. One can walk out for miles, as the water never deepens. My friend heads out with his bottle, fills it, and comes back to the shore. I also move into the peaceful lake, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking. I get very far, more than a mile away from the land. I notice that the sky is becoming full of threatening clouds, bringing back my memory of the tornado we saw on Mille Lacs in my childhood. I panic and realize I need to quickly head back.
I make it safely onto the shore, next to my friend. I show him the bottle that I filled with the pure, magical water. I worried it could spill, but the top of the glass has a spigot, like a tiny watering can. A pitcher. None of the mysterious water is lost.
Day notes:
I am spending a lot of time at Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska. This weekend I will be at Leech Lake with Bonnie (and Paul).
Monday, October 6: I am home from Leech Lake. Paul took us on a nice boat ride. The harbor near their house is shallow. Paul and I both have dementia, so I feel a silent kinship with him. Bonnie and I had a very powerful tarot reading together: my main card was the nine of pentacles, and her deck image included an apple, reminding me of “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The card had a bowl full of fruit and vegetables on top of the woman’s head. Her crown. I think that tells me nutrition has natural healing elements for the brain. Or that spirit provides “meals” for my mind. The bowl also had a snail, perhaps telling me dementia will move very slowly.
Maybe the shallow water in the lake is a metaphor for how the brain atrophies during dementia. The temporal lobe or the hippocampus are not as large, deep.
There was a thunderstorm on Leech Lake early Sunday morning (October 5).
Wednesday, October 8: I went to Susan’s dream group on Monday afternoon. I felt the same way as I feel during Victoria’s dream group. Not smart enough. Susan’s and Victoria’s processes are very similar. We don’t get a printed dream ahead of time and we don’t get to write down “if this were my dream.” Susan and Victoria ask most of the questions. They are the very active guides. They also work on two dreams each session, so I did share this “Pure Lake” dream. Near the end of the session I found out Susan’s spouse has Alzheimer’s, just like Paul. He is Japanese and is losing his ability to speak English. I confessed to Susan that I have dementia, too, and probably won’t be able to do dream work much longer. It was a very emotional conversation. Kind and brilliant human beings.
The day after sharing the dream with Susan’s circle something new came up for me. We talked about the trees being behind me, at my back (which I often dream about). I said that was support. Later I realized trees are spines and their branches are the nervous system. Kundalini.
