Last night, I had avery strange dreams. It bothered me in some ways, so I thought I’d write about it here.

The dream was about Mike. Somehow, he had found me and took me to dinner someplace so we could talk. He wanted the two of us to get back together. In fact, he was quite emphatic and persistent about it. And in the dream, a part of me really wanted to say yes. But another part of me was quite unenthusiastic about the idea. In fact, that part of me was downright cold to the idea.

And there were good reasons for that emotional reaction, don’t get me wrong. While Mike was being quite clear that he wanted us to get back together, he steered clear of discussing any of the reasons I broke up with him in the first place. And I was having problem with that, because it was pretty clear to me that none of the obstacles (most of them imposed by Mike himself) that caused me to walk away had been resolved, nor were they going to be. So the dispassionate part of me kept running through the list:

“That’s nice, but your family commitments and the fact that you don’t want to tell them you like guys is still going to keep us apart most of the time.”

“That’s nice, but you’re still not ready to move in together and may never be ready for that, given the way things are going.”

“That’s nice, but I still don’t foresee the romantic or physical side of our relationship growing.”

In short, he was offering me a return to the status quo I no longer wanted to live with back in 2005. I certainly don’t want to go back to living with it two years later!

I woke up before the discussion ended or I gave him an answer. I was rather troubled by the whole thing. Primarily, I was troubled by the fact that I was dreaming about him again two years after I broke up with him. I was troubled by that part of me in the dream that really did want to get back together with him. That’s mainly because I’m trourlbe by the idea that such a part of me probably still exists in the waking world. I want to move forward with my life. I want to look for that better, more fulfilling, and healthier relationship that most of me (the part that was cold and rational in the dream) knows I deserve. And I don’t want some part of me that still occasionally thinks longlingly of the one(s) that didn’t work out to get in the way of future possibilities.

And that’s why it probably particularly bothered me that I didn’t give him an answer before I woke up. Specifically, it bothers me that I didn’t just come right out and tell him that I’m still not interested in what he’s still offering me. Because that just makes it feel all the more like that small part of me is still holding me back.