Struggling to Reconnect After Loss

Dear Cynthia: In my dream I am looking for a phone number in my little black book when I notice the pages for M through Z are missing. I find this very upsetting, as they contain contact numbers for people I have failed to write down in any other book. I begin searching around for the missing pages, thinking they may have just fallen to the ground, and the next time I look at my little black book, all the pages are gone! Now I feel like crying. I search through my pockets for a tissue, and there are the missing pages in small plastic bags, as well as Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops I seem to have stolen from a store, unbeknownst to my own conscious self. Realizing I’m definitely a kleptomaniac and quite possibly mad, I sink to the ground and cry bitterly. Then I woke up.

In real life I do have a little black book I keep in my purse, but I’ve never been any sort of shoplifter! What possible meaning could this dream have? It made me feel a little sad and out of sorts all day.

SHARON HARRISON

Oceanside

Dear Sharon: Phone numbers and little black books are tools associated with communication and connection. Now you see them, and then, poof, you don’t. Sounds like a magic trick. M-Z is the last half of the alphabet. But soon the rest of the pages are missing as well. Do you feel that you have lost your ability to communicate or to reach others who are important to you? Do you need to back up some important information in case of an unexpected loss? Has someone disappeared from your life? Or has being unable to get in touch with someone made you feel like crying recently? Later you discover the missing pages in plastic bags in the same place as candy. Does the name Tootsie mean anything to you? Hidden in your pocket is something sweet that you didn’t even know you had. But you fear that you have stolen this treat and have no memory of it. Do you believe that you are not worthy of the sweetness of life? You don’t see yourself stealing; you assume that a part of you is operating on a level unknown to the conscious self.

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Cynthia Richmond is the author of “Dream Power: How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life” (Simon & Schuster, 2000). Fax your dreams to Cynthia Richmond at (818) 783-3267 or e-mail them to in.your.dreams@worldnet.att.net. Please include your hometown and a daytime phone number. In Your Dreams appears every Tuesday and should be read for entertainment purposes only.