I was born into a Methodist family, and raised in the Methodist Church.   For many years I went to Sunday School most weekends, and many summers were partially spent in week long Bible Study Day Camps.  (We went home each day, but came back the next day.)  It was, and is, a good foundation in the Christian faith, but didn’t feel right as I came into my teenage years.  I still went to Church with the parents, but inside I wasn’t sure I was in the right place.  Even in high school I started looking at other faith systems through the library and friends at school that went to other Christian centric Churches and participated in other faith systems.

During this time, from my 15th Birthday (that night actually) until the night before my 18th Birthday I dreamed, EVERY NIGHT, of being clothed in a white robe with a brown hooded thing over it, and a blue belt holding it all together.  Hanging on the rope was a beaded item with a crucifix (I called it a cross in my dreams not knowing the difference), and around the neck was another, oddly (to me) shaped crucifix as well.  I can remember in this dream trying to change the “habit” as I now know it from what it was to an all back or all brown habit, with a white rope, as that was what I had seen in the movies of the time, with Friar Tuck, and others.  It never worked though, I kept coming back to that habit…

This is what I saw myself dressed as!