She stood before me with hair made of blue-green moss, thick at the crown and soft at the edges. Teal, deep green, shadow-blue—every color held a little moisture, a little hush. It rose around her head in small lush banks, as though it had been growing there for years.
Then she lifted both hands and began to clear it away.
The moss yielded at once. It came away in quiet folds, gathering into her palms as if it had only been waiting for this touch. Underneath, her hair lay close to the scalp, white almost entirely, half an inch at most, with only a few black strands scattered through it.
“Salt and pepper,” I said. “More salt.”
She bent her palm and found ground salt there, pale and fine. She lifted it to her head and worked it into the short white hair with small sure circles. Grain caught at the roots. White settled into white.
At her feet, the moss lay in blue-green drifts, lush as a forest floor after rain. At her crown, another texture had taken its place: chalk, bone, frost, old light.
The moss kept its hush.
The salt kept its light.
She went on rubbing the salt through her hair, temple to crown, crown to nape, and back again. Salt fell in a light scatter across her shoulders. A little clung to her fingertips. A little remained shining at the roots.
She bent her head once, just enough for the close white hair to take the light. The few dark strands stayed where they were, thin as stitching.
Her hands moved more slowly then. One pass. Then another. Then stillness. She left both palms resting lightly at the crown for a breath, as though listening there.
When she lowered them, the salt remained in the short white hair, bright and fine. The moss stayed pooled at her feet. I kept watching.
She stood there with salt bright in her hair and the blue-green moss gathered below her, and my last words stayed where they had landed:
more salt.
Later, awake, the sequence kept its plain order: blue-green moss hair, hands clearing it away, the close white field beneath, the handful of salt. I could feel the old path there, the one that gathers every image inward and asks at once what it says about me.
That doorway still glows.
Another one opened beside it.
I am centered enough in my own consciousness
to wander beyond self-concern.
The woman in the dream kept her own center. She kept her own logic. I said more salt, and the dream answered with salt already in her hand. Something in me widened there. I could receive the image in its own life. I could stay with the colors, the gesture, the salt caught at the roots. It held its own shape, and I met it with my whole attention.
So she remains for me there: the blue-green moss set down in soft folds, the near-white hair bright at the roots, the fine salt still holding the light.
Thank you for taking this trip with me. I had fun. I hope you do too.
— Stomari
Filed under: Dream Narrative
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A beautiful dream that drew me in and brought me peace.