I am sitting in the passenger seat of the car with my seatbelt on while Darchelle picks blueberries from a small bush just ahead of the car along the side of Wilson Road in Jackson between the front yard of the house and the bridge over Great Brook. I think someone is with her but it is not clear who it is. Meanwhile behind the car another woman who reminds me of Dena Hilde is picking blueberries from another bush. I want to taste the blueberries so I get out of the car and walk over to the bush where Darchelle is picking. She has left a small cluster of berries so I pick them and eat them. They are delicious. Seeking more berries I check the bushes from which Dena was picking and find a few berries left behind but they do not taste good so I spit them out.
I start walking across the bridge. I am barefoot and I walk slowly because I have ALS, but as I walk I feel stronger so when I reach the start of the hill I began running. The road up the hill is covered with several inches of old crusty snow and I wonder why it has not been plowed. Not far past the top of the hill I find Andy and Mary Howe doing something in middle of the unplowed road. The snow is deeper here. I exclaim to them how odd it is that the road has not been plowed and I have the impression that they agree though we do not actually converse. Behind us I notice a red snowplow approaching the foot of the hill and beginning to clear the road.
As I continue running out towards the main road the snow is soft and more than a foot deep where it has been shaded by the trees along the road. Andy joins me and we are running together as the snowplow comes up behind us. We need to get out of its way so we each grab onto small trees along the edge of the road and hanging onto the trunks, we draw our knees up to our chests in order to lift our feet out of the roadway. The snowplow continues on by us, buffeting us a little with the banked up snow from the blade as it passes.

Although its meaning is not particularly clear, the dream incorporates symbols which refer to progressively earlier periods in my life. Sitting in the car while Darchelle engages in an activity with a friend just outside of the car is a direct reference to our recent birdwatching, in which I wait in the car while she gets out to try for photos or to hear singing birds more clearly. Picking blueberries was one of my favorite activities during summer visits to Jackson when I was healthy. Dena Hilde is probably a reference to my life with Susan and the boys, the association being the time Susan brought Dena's daughter Megan back to New Hampshire with us when Megan and the boys were in junior high school. At the time we hoped that we could help Megan develop a more peaceful relationship with her mother, but that did not work out. The contrast between the sweet berries which Darchelle was picking and the distasteful berries Dena left behind may symbolize the difference between my relationships with Darchelle and Susan. Dena is behind me in the dream, as is my marriage to Susan in real life.
Andy Howe was one of my closest childhood friends; playing in the woods when we were young we would hang off a young tree if we needed to poop because we had not yet learned that we could simply squat to do our business. Andy, a reference to my early childhood, is juxtaposed with snow, which is usually a reference to the end of my life. Mary Howe was Andy's stepmother and someone whom I have known since high school. She died a couple of years ago, the first of three close family members for whom Andy was primarily responsible during their decline and death. Her presence in the dream, along with the uncharacteristically unplowed road, may refer to the changes in my life as several people close to me - Eric and John primarily - have died, and as I approached closer to my own death.
Running in my dreams sometimes symbolizes progression through life and sometimes simply sets the timeframe for the dream. In this dream it may do both. I began running when the boys were in junior high school, around the time we took Megan back to Jackson, and continued running with Darchelle and for the first several years after I was diagnosed with ALS. As I run in this dream I recover my strength from ALS and progress with increasing vigor both towards the end of my life (represented by the increasingly deep snow) and back to some aspect of childhood. Childhood and Jackson both may symbolize a return to my true self after attempting for much of my adult life to be someone else.
To put it all together...may not be possible. The red snowplow remains inscrutable. Why I am running away from the house in Jackson is likewise unclear, although what comes to mind as I write this is the idea that life goes on. People close to me die; I die; the snowplow comes along and clears the road, making room for the next generation to live their lives accompanied by only memories of those of us who have died. And what are we ourselves made of, other than our memories, in which we live all ages of our lives at the same time, outside of time.

Several other dreams incorporate combinations of symbols similar to this one.