Some people consult a Realtor to find the perfect apartment.

I consult my dreams.

Some time back, I sold my house with the intention of moving out of the quiet New England valley where I’ve been living since college, and buy a condo in another city some 90 miles away.

But my dreams would have none of it. One by one, a parade of dreams led my slowly and surely to the address I now call home.

First, in a series of dreams, people pointed out all the things I’d miss if I moved far away.

That seemed natural–after all, I’d lived in this area for 30 years. I noted the dreams and kept making plans to buy a condo, pack my belongings, and find new work in a new city.

Even as I made my deposit on sweet little place in Cambridge, and even as I scheduled a home inspection and looked into moving companies, my dreams protested.

Then I had a dream that I was riding bicycles with a friend toward my yoga studio, which happens to be called “Mama Nirvana’s.” In that dream, as I pedaled through a  neighborhood in a nearby town  just a short drive from where I had been living, a voice in the dream said, “You’d be happy here.”

In another dream, a character advised, “Temporary is good,” seeming to confirm the idea of renting rather than buying.

I finally put the brakes on my plans to buy the condo, not only because of the dreams, but also because wake life opportunities started popping up that confirmed my dreams’ insistence that staying close by would be the best thing for me at that time.

And so I did. As I began scouring Craig’s List for a place to rent, I dreamed I was looking at an apartment and someone was telling me they were glad to see the old tenants leave, because while they were good people, they made too much noise with their music.

Awake, I must have looked at a half dozen apartments, by the time I answered an ad for a two-bedroom located in the neighborhood I’d been bicycling through in my “Mama Nirvana” dream.

The landlady, it turns out, was an old acquaintance of mine. As she showed me the available apartment she explained, “I love the tenant who’s moving out, but he’s a musician and he practices late into the night, so it would be nice to have a  quiet writer like you move in,” she said smiling.

It was as if the wake-life landlady were reading the script from my recent dream. Now I was really paying attention.

Just then, I looked out the kitchen window and saw “my” car in the driveway. But it couldn’t be my car. I’d parked downtown and walked to the apartment. Turns the tenant who would be moving out at the end of the month drove a car that was the exact same make, model, and color of my own. This was starting to feel like more than just a coincidence.

“So,” the landlady asked, “are you interested?”

“I am,” I said.

And that is how I found my dream home — with a little help from my dreams.

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If you’d like to learn how to use your dreams to help you find a home … or to help you gain insight, guidance, and clarity into emotional issues, creative blocks, problems, or questions, contact me and set up an appointment for a dream consultation. 

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UPDATE: In the years since this post was originally published, my dreams have also served as my matchmaker, leading me into a whole new life of wedded bliss … and a new address as well!