My new book “Midlife Solo” will be published by Mosaic Press later this year. Stay tuned!

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dream

Maybe 3 times a year, I have a dream so powerful that I remember it when I wake up. When that happens, I do my best to write it down before it vanishes. Wrote this this morning:

Dream – packing for a trip, a bit frantic,
getting everything into a small suitcase, and Anna is helping me. Though
there’s panic, it’s pleasant too, I’m going home and I’m looking at things I
love as I put them in the suitcase. But there’s a sadness – I’m packing my
teddy bear which has been damaged. The head has been torn off and is all that remains. Anna tries to fix the
situation – she finds a hairy bear’s body that will fit and attaches it. But
it’s the wrong fur, wrong colour and texture, and I say I’d rather just have
the head than have my bear with the wrong body.

I find other things at the last minute – my
thick mauve sweater – and yet there’s lots of room to put them in. I’m aware of the
pressing deadline of the departure and the fact that Anna will be making the
same journey herself later and will have a lot more things to carry, and I
won’t be there to help her.

Have been thinking a lot about death recently
– read the book “The thing about life is that one day you’ll be dead.” A dear elderly friend has told me he’s got early stage dementia and lots of changes will be in store.
I think this dream is connected to that – to my eventual final journey
without my daughter.

Sitting here on a quiet Tuesday morning,
the snow falling, the furnace rumbling, the coffee warming my belly – my
daughter’s new happiness with the father of her son, my son’s adventures, my
own – oh I do not want to leave this life.

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About Beth

I began keeping a journal at the age of nine. Nearly fifty years later, I started this online journal, sharing reflections, reviews, updates, and the occasional secret.

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Wherever you’ve come from, wherever you’re going, consider this space a place for reflection and pause.

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A new book by Beth Kaplan, published by Mosaic Press – “Midlife Solo”

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