The dreams keep coming

I slept well last night and in the morning had several dreams. I remember in the earlier one I was on the street outside an open storefront that reminded me of North Lumpkin Street in Athens as it was when A&A Bakery and Bowden's Music Store were located there way back in the 1960s. Some older African-American musicians were playing a gospel song that had the chorus "Trouble no more." The message was that after all of our trials, it's going to be OK. The tune was familiar and when I awoke, I identified it as a Henry Turner, Jr. song "Family Reunion." I think I woke up and went back to sleep after which I dreamed I was talking to Henry and telling him about hearing the song with similar music as his composition. Then I dreamed I was going with a friend to pick up his car that was being repaired. We left and I realized I wasn't wearing the tennis shoes I previously had on. I was puzzled and distressed because I didn't recall taking them off and there was no reason why I would have done this. It also seems I didn't have other shoes to wear and I became somewhat frantic to go back and find them.

Thinking about this, I googled "Trouble no more" and was reminded this is the title of a famous and familiar song by Muddy Waters that has been covered many times, most notably by the Allman Brothers on their first LP.  The hook is "But some day baby, you ain't gone trouble poor me any more." The dreams reflect anxiety and sadness I feel about getting older and being worried about vulnerability stemming from progressive infirmity and loss of memory. The transience of everything, lost opportunities for fulfillment in love and music, failing memory, and the inevitability of dying are often in my thoughts. Intellectually, I'm reconciled to all of this and grateful things, like the theme of "Trouble no more," have gone so well in my life; yet, I have to talk to myself continuously to keep that valid and positive perspective.