Need Dreams?

I had a bunch of weird dreams last night centering on the theme of neediness. In the first, I had some people over our house. The living room was set up the old way. My grandparents (both mobile), our kooky next-door neighbor Albert, some ten-year-old boy that was his girlfriend's child or something, another small boy. I read Albert's boy, who was skinny and not wearing a shirt, a book. Everyone left when my mother and aunt (other caretakers) came to take my grandparents. I gave Albert's boy an adolescent book I liked as a child and told him to keep it. He began to cry and said that no one was that nice to him. He told me his mother passed AIDs onto him and that it sucked to be born with the cards stacked against you. It dawned on me that someone needed to give him a chance and that that person was me. I told him I'd see what I could do. I wondered what to tell K--would we adopt him and move to Mt Washington near better schools? How would we afford private schooling? What about his medical coverage? Adoption? I woke up.

The second dream K and I were in a thrift store. We needed to get a list of things for a sick person we knew. I remember looking through the list, which included appliances, and seeing several really old versions of them scattered throughout the store. We paused to look at some t-shirts that K was interested in (retro types with the ringer on the collar and sleeves). I woke up.

The third dream I am vacuuming my mother's bedroom. She has a colorful, swirled carpet of pinks and maroons and lavenders. I was working really hard to get the floor cleaned when I noticed that something squishy and wormlike was on the floor. I realized it was a leech (but looked more like a slug, which frequent my mom's garden) and that the ceiling was covered with them. I ran out of the room, imploring my brother's help in getting rid of them.

The first dream seems to speak to my capacity to help people and a message that perhaps I should be exploring that role rather than being a childless "artiste." However, the presence of other, "needy" people at my party indicates to me that I, on some level, have played a nurturing role in my life. The second dream speaks to my (and K's) reluctance to move on this realization (ie, more interest in K's pet projects--shirts--and also a sign of the immaturity still lingering in us). The third dream speaks to the necessity of my taking on a larger role, for my mother has been overwhelmed by the needs of others, to the point that she's breaking down, and my brother and I need to step up and clean out the leeches.

Something to think about, I guess.