I dreamed I was walking a time worn path of red earth and white stones through vineyards in a mountainous region. First it seemed I was alone and contemplative, then it seemed I was walking with an intimate friend, speaking quietly and intently to one another. My gaze remained fixed on the path as we walked and spoke.

Then the one I was with stopped, and whispered with a quiet intensity and wonder, saying "Look!"

As I gazed up I was alone again, it seemed. I saw where two stone marker walls met, made of the same white rock, reddened with the clay and ruddy soil of the reigion. And there was a luminous tree, shape of a lemon tree but with smooth dense white bark, and few if any leaves. In the tree were about 10 or 12 birds. They were of many colors, and I thought, "oh, those are the colors that haven"t been invented yet". But the colors were more than colors. It was like a living moving thing, the colors. More than that, the birds were of one mind and knowledge. And they all looked straight into my eyes all at the same time. And their eyes were knowing and they willed a message into me as if boring it into me. And the word was "peace", but it was a gentle and intent command. It was a will, or a mission, or a purpose. And it was beautiful and awesome.

So seeing as I"m a simple person with kids and banal details of life, and striving at a very modest career, and my apostrophe key doesn"t even work, and I"m not Mother Theresa or anything, it doesn"t really make a lot of sense, but I love it anyway, and the feeling it gives me.