"Aubrey/Tina"

Slept beside the Shouzan stone carved into the figure of Lao Tzu last night.

A long dream set in our house in Cubao, but, as I was recording it, I realized that it was all about Grande Island and the people who live there.


The Dream:

The compound that we live in is some kind of adventure resort (bridge to Grande Island). In this dream, I am its co-owner. There is a store that sells all kinds of bags and hiking supplies (bridge to a store that we are planning to set up on Grande Island). I take Aubrey to the store and ask her if I should buy a white bag that comes closest to a bag I've always wanted. She says I shouldn't buy it because it is better suited to a younger man, and I agree with her.

Aubrey then tells me that she wants to tell me something important (bridge to Tina). I automatically think that it has something to do with school, and I get worried, especially when a male soccer coach approaches and tells Aubrey not to reveal things. Aubrey goes off to join other school children in a soccer field. They sit on chairs to listen to a lecture by one of their coaches. I wait patiently and make a mental note to ask Aubrey what she'd wanted to tell me. Afterward I am with Aubrey again. The male coach passes by and glares at me, but that is all he can do because I am family.

I wake up in my dream at 4:30 AM. I go back to sleep and, also in my dream, I wake up at 8:00 AM. I go to the Emission Testing Center beside the compound and note that there are workmen hanging out there. The bus/shuttle that usually takes me to the office has gone. I deliberate not going to work, but imagine Sonny Belmonte saying that, in the Philippines, you can't just miss a bus (bridge to Teow Li taking me in a bus back to the hotel), because there are so many routes to any one location.

Now I am in a tram (bridge to Grande Island's electric golf carts) driven by one of the workmen and headed for home, which is now across our street, with Angelique and Aubrey. The driver reminds me of Carlo, one of the Grande island studio apprentices. When we get down he says, "Lahat ng tumatabi sa 'kin, ang dami kong naririnig tungkol sa inyo" (bridge to psychic abilities), to which I reply, "Mag-usap tayo minsan."

Inside the house, albeit across the street from our real house, Ivy asks me to help gather Aubrey's things, which are in a drawer beside a white, plastic box under a wooden table. The table is under the archway from the laundry room to the studio lounge. I am unable to get things right. I don't see Aubrey's things; all I see are her socks inside the white, plastic box. Someone in the dream laughs at me for not getting things right. Then Aubrey comes with a little boy to help me find her things.

Next I am on Grande Island, inside the art studio, and I am very disappointed to see that the new canvases have not been hung and that the rack I ordered made has not yet been done.


Commentary:

I see this as an anxiety dream. I am probably so preoccupied with painting and sculpting on Grande Island and conducting workshops in Singapore that I may be neglecting my family and our house.

This is the dream that Lao Tzu gave me last night.