Did you ever notice how working in the city on Fridays in August is eerie? Doesn't it seem like one of those Armageddon films where you and some other random folks are left behind? You see remnants of activity that used to be and traces that much has happened here but somehow it all stopped. I shut down my computer, walked around the aisles and felt a sorrow that the past was trying to hold on but the world had shifted already. It was lonelier than other August Fridays in years past since more people were permanently gone from here and so many others gone from other floors and gone from other buildings in New York. Outside the streets were equally as empty. It was 6 o'clock and I had an hour to get to Penn Station, way more than enough time to get there. I kinda sauntered across the block between Park & Madison while I imagined a big hand coming down from the sky to scoop me out of this cardboard model of a city and place me somewhere else. I needed to focus so I decided to read an ad that I must have passed many times. It was about John Lennon, The New York City Years, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Soho...exclusively created by Yoko Ono. It was a limited engagement that started in May. I wondered if it was still going on. It was so hot and humid standing there taking in the poster. I felt like I was in the center of gravity and I couldn't stop looking at those letters YOKO ONO. God, I thought life is changing here like another force is around, just like the one that breaks things up and can't be stopped...just like the force that broke up the Beatles back then. At that point I breathed in deeply and slowly. Finally someone was passing by me, another random survivor on planet earth. Unlike "the end of days" movie where the last survivors don't recognize each other, I at least recognized the stranger left behind as the other Beatle, Paul.
Here we go again, I thought, one of my nocturnal premonitions is playing out and I probably won't know why. I walked behind him a bit until he sat on a bench. I stood by a traffic light across from Tabla and contemplated. Years ago I dreamed that I was in a conversation with Paul McCartney outside a park. I warned him that he would marry a woman who he could not trust and his family would not like for him and she would have a baby. Once the baby was born he would start to see the danger. He asked me what career coaching was and I was trying to answer. That was it. Now here he is at Madison Square Park and I have him all to myself but I just couldn't get myself to approach him. Instead I called Michael and played a guessing game with him as to what famous person was sitting on a bench near me. Once Michael guessed that it was his favorite musician ever he convinced me to take a picture. I forgot that my blackberry has this feature. This was a hard one for me. I loathe disturbing celebrities, but a legend as well, this was going to be a real stretch of my personality. Maybe that was the significance of the dream, that this is a time when I need to be more assertive in all things and it begins here. I pretended I was talking on my phone when I snapped the image. There, I did it and I survived, and Michael will be happy, that's nice. It was time to move on.
As I entered the park, I saw a little girl who was reaching out to pet a bull dog who was there with his owner. The blond girl was standing next to who I presumed was her mother and I heard a growl and I saw the dog lunge at the child. The owner pulled back on the leash and the child was spared. I thought it odd that the mother did not react much to the threat of her daughter getting attacked. Then I watched the woman and child walk over to Paul McCartney where the little girl was delivered to her "weekend Dad." Father and daughter showered each other with kisses.
The rest of the way to the station I thought about the peculiarity of premonitions. They are like variety packs that have many items in them. We can open them, chew them, digest them, and release them into a story. How significant are they?
I reserved my deeper thoughts for the train ride. The pattern of the motion of a train moving at the same speed for long stretches of time induces the alpha state, perfect to ponder a premonition that has collapsed onto reality.
Once we pulled out of the station I let myself relax and reflect. I dreamed of something that did happen to Paul McCartney. Why? I have no real connection to him.
The dream could have been a foreshadowing of this day, but why? In Larry Dossey's book "The Power of Premonitions" he considers that premonitions are mostly about chaos. People who have premonitions usually see disasters, deaths, illnesses, or danger in general.
He also questions what can one do about a premonition to change the outcome. Could you imagine if years ago I tried to get in touch with Paul McCartney and warn him about his future? It didn't matter anyway, his kids warned him and he still followed the path that brought him to Madison Square Park on a summer Friday in August.
Could it be about the force? I was reading the poster about Yoko at the time he walked by me and I was focused on the force that creates chaos. Could the dream be a warning that when this seemingly innocuous event occurred , something chaotic was stirring in the air. The only way I would recognize it was by seeing the celebrity I dreamed of years ago. Maybe it had no meaning and it was just one of those time experiences. But I did dream of the coming personal upheaval for the Beatle back then. Could he be on a verge of a another transition?
Could it be that something was going to happen to the child since the dog lunged at her? Again, what maniac would I be to think of saying "your daughter is unsafe."
Then there was the detail of the dream where he was asking me about career counseling. That could be a sign to reconsider this practice and come to terms with a way of changing it. Another indicator of timing.
It could also be a basic life lesson in seeing that my life has problems because it is supposed to. The dream could have indicated a time when I would be in transition and that I needed to see that we all are here to make mistakes including legends who seem to have everything.
Premonitions indeed are like a variety pack of possibilities. Some premonitions are about big events, some about small stuff. Some are about people you know, or people you don't know but think you do, like celebrities. What all premonitions do have in common is the revelation that everything is connected, it is only shrouded in symbolism and the illusion that we are separate.
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