I would be an understatement to say I learned A LOT in that first reading! It certainly validated that there was something to all of these experiences – the hair on the back of my husband’s neck stood up when he heard the part about the blue butterfly! He remembered how I came home from that trip gushing about the butterflies being a sign, and at the time thinking yeah right. He didn’t question my impressions nearly as often after that. Although he did when I decided we should spend a whopping amount of money to record a CD of Grandpa Anderson’s music. And I guess who wouldn’t think you were kind of nuts to spend a lot of money on something just because a dead guy encouraged you to do it?
As it turns out, he did more than encourage. I left the notebook by my bed one night and spent the entire night being coached on exactly how to sing “The Last Rose of Summer.” And then I woke up another morning with this name ringing in my ears: Chancery Olcott. So I google that and turns out, well, he composed several of the songs written in the notebook! The next night I find myself listening to Grandpa Anderson play, on his violin, an accompaniment to “The Last Rose of Summer” that really blew me my mind. So I woke up and put it into Sibelius (music notation software) right away. All of that time transcribing orchestra music paid off – I found I could write down what I heard in my dreams, as time progressed and I became more practiced at it – what I heard in my head.
Then I had a strange experience – I still don’t have a good explanation what this one is about. But I found myself standing in the dining room back at The Aunt Farm. And I knew I was dreaming because The Aunt Farm is long gone. Grandpa Anderson walks in to the room.
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