Dream Journal: Tibetan Children with Balloons

Last night I dreamt, that I was in a small village in Tibet. It was during a festival and a group of Americans, including myself were stationed in this lovely place. Located high up on a mountain top, overlooking green rolling hills, this gathering took place in a neighborhood of dusty dirt roads and open flat ground.

There was laughter, music, and children running in circles as if there were a game of musical chairs happening. I stood there with some of my fellow American friends watching in awe as beautiful brown bare feet raced around us, chasing each other and as their joyful voices floated above us.

I had a couple dozen balloons in my hand and was preparing to pass them out to the children as they jostled passed us. The balloons were in red, yellow, blue and we had Tibetan prayers imprinted on the rubber in black ink. We began handing them out and the children began to fill the space running around with hovering, bobbing bubbles.

We had some left over materials and began decorating some balloons with colorful beads, light pieces of jewelry that could be placed on the balloon or tied to it's string. I was concerned that the children may argue over the few number of balloons that we specially decorated. Since, it was a small village stricken with poverty, I wasn't sure how they would react to something that would appear to be more valuable. For a moment, I thought that we should not hand out any balloons that seemed "special."

But, to my surprise, the children, asked, "Oh, what is that balloon?" Noticing that we had a handful of decorated ones, the eyes of sun kissed faces widened. I said, "Oh, these are just balloons we decorated with beads and jewelry, would you like this one?" A child answered, "No, I want the plain one with prayers on it, please." And as I handed him a regular balloon, he giggled and laughed and ran off to play.

The other children began screaming in fun and began asking for the plain balloons as well. Laughing and just being silly and kicking dirt and dust up from the ground as they hopped and skipped around us in excitement. By the end of the afternoon or the end of my dream sequence, I held the jeweled balloons in my hand, smiling and just thinking about the beauty of those wonderful Tibetan children.