At a party, on the couch next to me, a man sits down. 

I cannot see his face, but his body shape is positively familiar in my memory.

The man turns toward me with a warm, laughing smile.

This brings me present, and willing to lean in to  conversation and laughter.

Then... Bang ! This person is my father, Harold !  

I know he has been for 20 years, but this is him !  We just sit there, looking, knowing this “now” might be a dream.  

We embrace, and I overview the many big things, primarily my daughter Simon, my sister Layla, my mother Aleta and the others we love.  He looks at me, sharing a breath and a contented pause.  Then says with his mind, “That’s plenty of the words.  I, we don’t really need them.”  

So we stand, and get our bodies moving... Dad is so light on his feet !  We go outside into a balmy, summer twilight and begin running... fast, and gliding with  little effort.  I follow down a wooded dune toward a lake amid fragrant sensations.  Without slowing, our bodies dive into the waters. Stretching out, swimming and flowing in the waves... in the joy of being together.

After a short while i feel a surge, strong like the ocean.

I'm being pulled outward as if a tide is retreating with me, on and further.  I’m feeling deep in the wave as I lose my sense of direction.  A weight pressing in on all sides.  

"Relax into the tide and you will survive" I remember..

With this confident relinquishing of control I became insignificant within the vast water.  I can see light and a sort of horizon.  I am filled with energy and delight... i hear my Dad and others yelling with encouragement for me.

The ocean waters pulls down as I rise up.  I am adjusting now to a sort of swimming on the wind.  Rising and soaring upon waves of thinner fluid.  OH YEA !  with lush viscosity and lift. 

Vast views of the ocean below and the land beyond are stretching-out forever.  I love this.  A bit scary at first, then I remember being in a situation like this before.  Was that time another dream?  Was it a time of death or birth?  

I know i can dive hundreds of feet down into the water safely, if I choose.  I know I can stay here within the wind-waves.  I know I can rise higher.  And then, I sense my cat next to me, my bed.  It feels good.

I am grateful and refreshed.