Remembering “The Old Road:” A “Waking Dream in Retrospect”

Reading Time: 4 minutes

By Michael Avery

Are the memories we tenderly take out of our treasure box from the past simply remnants of better days, or do they carry messages yet to be delivered? Could they really be “Waking Dreams in Retrospect?”1

As I reminisce about a trip I made many years ago into a remote area of the Bohemia Basin near Cottage Grove, Oregon, it occurs to me now that what I found there was equally as valuable as the parable it inspired.

My friend and coworker at the plywood mill, Eldon, asked me if I wanted to accompany him to the Bohemia Basin one weekend late in October. I agreed, knowing how the area had once been a famous gold rush destination. When I asked where in the Bohemia Basin, Eldon responded cryptically, “You’ll see.” 

We traveled high into the mountains following a little-used logging road until deep ruts made continuing impossible, even for Eldon’s Jeep. Scotch Broom, blackberries, wild rose, and myriad tree branches made it hard to determine where the forest ended and the road began.  

“We’ll need to go the rest of the way on foot,” Eldon explained, abandoning his Jeep in the middle of the road. Looking ahead at the steep, overgrown incline before us, I shot my friend a questioning look. Eldon noted my concern and added, “What we’ll find about a mile up that hill will make the walk worthwhile.”

A Stroll Down Main Street

Eldon was right. Rounding a turn, we came upon a largely preserved abandoned mining town. This was not just a temporary camp. A row of buildings lined what must have been a bustling main street. The town’s general store stood next to the boarded up saloon. The last customer had finished his drink over a century before and left town, his pockets empty, in search of the next bonanza. 

There was a blacksmith shop, a post office, and a sheriff’s office complete with a jail. The ancient ghost town could have passed for a rustic Hollywood set. The scene was surreal. 

My memory of that day is vividly memorialized in one particular snapshot: As I paused inside the jail, I gazed out across the valley from a hole that had once been a bar-secured window. The hillside across from me was covered in deciduous trees wearing gold, red, and yellow leaves. Suddenly, to my surprise and delight, it began to snow.

For several minutes, I stood transfixed, watching the tranquil scene before me. A deer stepped out from behind the post office next door—a large buck with a four-point rack. He paused, not twenty feet away, and together we witnessed the first sign of winter.  

I have often remembered that day: the brightly colored leaves, the giant flakes of gently falling snow, the buck, the abandoned town, and the overgrown road that led me there.

In Retrospect

Looking back, I understand that a big cycle in my life was ending, just as Bohemia was changing her seasons. Time stood still, as I witnessed the transition between the old and the new—the zero point that lasted one full day. 

Shortly thereafter, my job at the plywood mill ended, and I moved away from the small town where I’d grown up. Like the old mining town, the gold had run out in my old life. A new world awaited me.

Now that I see what the Universe was showing me that day with this prophetic waking dream, I wonder if that memory will ever again find its way to the top of my treasure box? Or, did the memory come into my present moment with a message?2 Is it telling me that another big cycle in my life is ending?

The theme of my trip to Bohemia that day was “change,” the ending of a cycle and the letting go. To quote the man I affectionately called, “the Chief,” my late friend and mentor: “Things change whether we want them to or not.”3 

From him, I learned that we can only take two things with us: the lessons we’ve learned and the love in our hearts. Even the strongest memories falter and fade. 

So, I say goodbye to the old road and thank it for leading me to the abandoned town where a chapter of my life ended and a new one began. I also thank the old road for inspiring this parable that I now post with gratitude.

*                    *                     *

The Old Road4

An old road once ran through the Enchanted Forest. Its fame was such, that many believed the entire Earth was spanned by its length. Only a few travelers passed through the forest in those days, however, and eventually the passage was swallowed up by the wild rose and blackberry. 

But to those who lived during that day and time, the road was a subject of much controversy.

Some believed the old road had been constructed by an ancient race of men, swept from the face of the Earth by the great flood. Others speculated that it had been created at the beginning of time, and that the forest had grown up around it.

Some believed the great road had its point of origin in the Enchanted Forest; then there were others who argued that the forest marked its ending. But those days are gone now, and only a few are left who can still remember the old road.

Sometimes the old ones sit around the park and laugh about the controversy surrounding the old road. Yes, they were happy days indeed, they all agree.

But some of the old-timers swear the road ran north and south, while others argue that it ran east to west.

1. “Waking Dreams in Retrospect” are recurring memories carrying waking dream messages—lessons, insights, guidance, healing, etc.—that we failed to recognize when we were younger and less aware.
2.”Messages from Memories” are another type of Exotic waking dreams
3. Michael Harrington, Porcupines at the Dance, p. 90.
4. Parable called “The Old Road,” from Porcupines, p. 35.