The other night, I had a lucid dream that I was walking through my garden of seed starts with my little Australian shepherd puppy, Susan.

I was reading Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces last night before bed. Campbell is one of my favorite minds, writers, professors. And his writing sent my mind into an excellent dream world, which manifested more vividly than it usually does. More colorful. More lucid. More exciting.

It was like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I was a tiny person in a jungle full of vegetable starts. Flower seedlings. There were bugs like horses and butterflies like giant falcons.

I was wearing my token outfit of cutoffs, swimsuit top, red lipstick, and cowboy boots. She was wearing her cowdog fur, as per the usual. We were dropped off in the garden by a giant eagle, and we proceeded to go for a walk, like we do almost every day. From another one of my favorite minds:

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

~ CG Jung

I dream lucidly almost every night, and I dream about Susan most nights. She is my best friend. She is the first dog I’ve ever had as an adult. I talk to her more than any other human/animal. We go to coffee together, eat meals together, and sleep together. We watch movies together, and she loves popcorn and Tootsie pops. She is my best running and skiing buddy. I am pretty sure she would save my life or give her life for me if she needed to.

And now, we dream together.

In this dream, we ran through nasturtiums, frolicked through dill and cilantro, and rolled in patches of kale and chard. We climbed up sunflower stalks and picked strawberries off—ripe and ready. She licked my face while I examined heirloom tomato sprouts. I’d throw her ball into the middle of little red beet shoots. We took a nap in the softness of soil and basked in the sun as it peeked through the window of the sunroom. We chased butterflies and watched bumblebees make their way through the sky, each on a mission to build a new empire.

And then we woke up, the coffee pot wafting through the morning air and the promise of warmth and maybe rain on the Montana horizon. Today I would go out to water the garden, and Susan would chew her bone in the grass next to me, her white fur radiant in the sunshine.

Our walk together would be blissful today…me and my heart buddy.

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Photo: Author’s own & used with Susan’s permission