Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Dream that Saved My Life

Have you ever had a dream come true? I have. Many times since I was 15 years old. Having dreamed of tragic events, a cousin dying, a neighbor committing suicide, it never occurred to me that one day I might dream of my death.

That dream came in October 2012 when in the dream, I was driving my car and turned down a snow covered hill. It was virgin snow, no cars had been down this route and was dark. My daughter was in the back seat of the car. The hill ended at a T section and when I tried to stop, the snow covered hill revealed that underneath the snow was black ice. The car slid through the stop sign and a white truck smashed the driver side door. I woke up in shock at the literal realism and details of the dream.

Having had many precognitive dreams in the past, and the fact this concerned my daughter I reconsidered what tires I had set out for the winter. I had two winter tires and two all seasons that got me through the last winter just fine. Until the dream, changing this tire set wasn't an option. However, reviewing the details of the dream I couldn't dismiss the foreboding sense of doom that it conveyed. After speaking about it with my mother, I opted to buy 4 brand new winter tires and have them studded just in case this dream was precognitive.

What made this interesting is where I live studs are not a requirement and the Walmart clerk certainly made it known that I shouldn't waste my time on having studs put on the tire. He showed me several different brands and I kept insisting on the best winters that supported studs. Finally in the end, I had the tires I wanted.

It would be the first winter in 24 years of driving that I would put studded winter tires on my car.

That winter, I was house sitting to avoid a commute between cities for work. Having my daughter I set out early to her day care and took an alternate route. It was a fresh snowfall and I took a the back-roads concerned that the highway driving might be too dangerous having had some close calls on the first day of snow in the past.

On the back route however, I was the only car that had driven as no other tracks were present. Making a right on the only hill that connects to where my destination was, I was suddenly confronted with the same scenario that I had previously dreamt.

By the time I remembered the dream, it was at the same spot where I started braking to stop on the hill. Like the dream foretold, there was black ice under the road and even with the studded winter tires, the car slid horribly and I panicked. Uncertain if I could even stop, I started to honk the horn to warn on coming traffic. Fortunately, the studs were digging into the black ice and when I was about a foot past the stop sign, the car stopped. Just as the white truck drove full speed less than a foot in front of me.

This certainly has made me grateful for these kinds of dreams and now, I can honestly say I owe precognitive dreaming my life. When my daughter grows up uninjured and still has a father, she can be thankful I changed the outcome of the dream by simply changing a set of tires. A life saving choice anyway you look at it.

No comments:

Post a Comment