Recent Fragments...

[No complete narratives remain in waking memory the last few days; however, here are some images and passages that have survived into consciousness.]

- The Rocky Ascent

I'm climbing an increasingly steep, rocky hill/mountain face—like a crag. The crag seems to be mediterranean or near-eastern. Somehow religious. I'm not sure how I know this, but the light, the rocks themselves, and the sprigs of green bushes growing in the rocks introduce them as such.

I make this climb daily, or repeatedly. As I'm nearly all the way up, this sense of repetition hits me—I've done this before. Along with the repetition, a sense of danger also kicks in. I have no ropes or harnesses to save me if I fall (make a mistake, lose grip); and this pressure makes the climb suddenly more difficult. My grip feels less assured, bits of twig and branch I cling onto seem less safe, I feel the ground, far below, sucking me in. But I'm nearly there.

I muddle through the last few feet. There is a midriff height steel barrier at the top of the crag, I know it will be easy to get over that, so the main point is getting as far as it. I see a young sapling or shoot growing out of the rock and go to grip it. Older branches can be brittle and weak, and I'm sure the young shoot will be rubbery, tough, and supple—though hard to grip, slippy and small. I grab it and some other purchase points too, it's a ragged ascent: bits of rock and branch break away, but I'd managed to get hold of something else before they went; foot holds slip, and hand holds are precarious—but I muddle through, and up to the top.

Vaulting over the metal barrier, I'm standing around the corner from the house I grew up in. The spot where I stand was a bridge over a canal/waterway, also the apex of a hill. There were (are) old victorian mansions all around, and great old trees.

- Stevie Wonder: I Just Called/The Weather...

Two nights on the run, this theme has somehow worked itself in to the dreams (which themselves, I can't recall). I'm searching for an emotive Stevie Wonder song - the lyrics, and Stevie's voice, are all important, and that's why I'm looking it up - and am sure it begins "The Weather" or "The red sky..." I'm sifting through an i-Tunes style list of music for it. The tune is playing in my mind as a song called "The Weather" or "The Red Sky," but I can't find it; yet the melody is so famous it frustrates me that I can't put my finger on it. Sooner or later I realize it's the tune of "I Just Called to Say I Love You" and the opening lyric I'm thinking of is "No...., No...." etc. But this, too, doesn't seem right. It was the tune of "I Just Called..." and something about a red sky or sunset—something weather related.