Crazy dreams and the wisdom of children

Last night before we fell asleep I was telling John about an upsetting dream I’d had that morning and of course Lorelei was right there listening.  I have a lot of anxiety dreams, and this one definitely fell into that category.  I’d invited two of my best friends from high school over to work with me on a term paper we had due (yes, high school very often figures into my anxiety dreams–and if it’s not high school, it’s usually Christmas!).  They had just arrived when a client called and wanted me to come over to do some work, so I took my friends and several of the kids along.
When the work was finished, the client wanted me to go to lunch with her.  I was worried about abandoning my kids and my friends and the paper, but she said it would just take a short time.  She left ahead of me and when I finally found her, I realized I only had one  shoe on and had to run back upstairs for the other one.  This scenario seemed to go on forever, sometimes with mismatched shoes, or someone else’s shoes, but never with two of my own that matched.  Finally I sat down and started to cry, saying, “I’m sorry.  I just can’t do this any more!”
There was more, but you get the drift.  I’m really quite good at interpreting dreams, and had my own ideas about what this meant, but I still wanted to know what John thought about it.  Unfortunately he was starting to fall asleep.  So I said to Lorelei, “What do you think that means?”  And she told me, “I think it means that you are working  and working and working all the time.”
Out of the mouths of five-year-olds . . .