Dream casts a human shadow, when it occurs to him to do so.

Let us discuss the land of dreams. Share a somehow memorable dream/nightmare you've had. Maybe it was so bizarre that is stuck with you, or so beautiful, funny or horrible...

I believe it was my turn to give out the topic this time so here you go.

I'm going to share a dream that has stuck with me for years, surprisingly not because it was something awful but because it was so beautiful I keep wishing I could go back to it.

I was standing at a market place of sorts. It was a large area covered in cobble stone. Surrounding the market place were several buildings of beautiful old-timey tile and stone architecture, I think many of the buildings were factories. In contrast to all the stone and tile, there was a gorgeous park with the greenest grass and a nice fountain. One side of the park was framed by a row of Oak trees.

The sun was shining, making the green grass of the park practically glow, along with the Oak leaves. I was in what looked like it could have been 19th century England. I was wearing the clothes of a fairly upper class woman, it seemed. I could hear the sound of horse hooves hitting the cobbled streets as people, mainly lower class workers in their worn clothes, used them to pull carriages around. I was not paying particular attention to any of those people, I was looking at a man in a dark suit and a top hat, who was discussing with a man who I assume was someone who worked at horse stables, maybe a stable master. They were smiling as they spoke and I was content at just looking at them in silence, from a distance. The man in a top hat was my husband, I think it was an arranged marriage but I wasn't upset, I felt fine and warm.

After a while my husband and the stable master approached me, walking a beautiful horse with a copper-red coat towards me. Apparently the horse was my wedding present. They helped me up onto its back and like a proper lady, I sat there with both of my legs on the same side of the saddle (sidesaddle). Suddenly something spooked the horse, or it just decided it was time to go - I'm not sure. It started to gallop, fast, like a race horse. The sun made its red coat shine, everything around us still looked so beautiful. I wasn't scared, I just conformed to the movement of the horse, but I did feel an adrenaline rush as I struggled slightly to hold on and keep myself from slipping (if any of you have ridden sidesaddle, you know it's definitely not the best position to go with if you want to stay firmly on the horse). The stable master tried to run after us, but he couldn't keep up. We were off and I still had that warm feeling. That's when I woke up.

After waking up I couldn't think about anything else but the beautiful imagery. The landscape, the colors, the horse...it was all gorgeous. I wish I could paint it but I'm just not good enough. It's been years since I had this dream and I still haven't dared to even try and sketch out what I saw onto a paper. It's kind of hard to explain but I fear that if I even try, the memory of the beauty will fade or change if I make an attempt to spill it onto a paper. I don't want to let go of it. Not just yet.