Strange light (was it a dream?)

I forgot about this. Luckily, as soon as I woke up and began to rationalize things, I snatched my phone and wrote everything I experienced on the memo -- while I still can remember. I accidentally opened the memo tonight and realized I haven't blogged it, so am doing now.

And here is what I wrote:

It happened on September 4 (based on my phone entry). About 10 minutes after midnight, when I was half asleep, I felt or saw a flash of light through my closed eyes. I sat up straight, awakened by the vision or dream. It couldn't be a dream, however, because I remember that the flash was accompanied by a short and low snapping sound. It sounded like a camera flash from an instamatic. 

I stared around and wondered what it was. Mel remained asleep so he couldn't have heard or felt it. After hesitating for a few minutes, I decided to check on the kids. Sometimes, when I have these rousing experiences, I assume that God is waking me up for a reason. Maybe the girls need checking up and He is using a strange movement or vision to make sure am fully awake and understand His message.

The kids were asleep but were not properly positioned in bed, so I rearranged them. Maybe that's the reason why. I hoped it is.

I've had one other such experience not too long ago, maybe just a couple of weeks before the Sept 4 thing happened. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering why the room looked brighter than it regularly does when all lights are off. Our room faces the corridor of the building so the light from the corridor illuminates the room partially. But on this particular night, the light appeared brighter than usual. Just as I did on September 4, I also sat up straight, trying to understand what was happening.

When I couldn't, I slowly laid back down and continued to gaze around the room. I told myself my eyes have probably adjusted to the initial darkness after the lights are extinguished and I fell asleep, and I'm seeing the room clearer now. The explanation didn't sound convincing even to me. I checked the kids that night, too, but nothing was amiss. So I returned to the room and went back to bed. This time, I thought the room is back to its normal appearance -- just the right darkness.

I didn't think anything of it the next day, until Marthe commented that she "dreamt" of the sarcophagus-looking stone we saw in Puerta Real gardens in Intramuros the previous weekend. She dreamt that the sarcophagus shape, in miniature, was moving across their room, illuminated by some kind of light (spotlight, she said), its shadow seen on their closet doors. She specifically mentioned that the bright light seems to come from outside their door and focused mainly on the gliding sarcophagus.

"Outside their door" is the door to our room. It was the mention of the "bright light" that caught my attention. She was dreaming about it at nearly the same time as I woke up to a bright light. If what she was dreaming actually happened, could I have seen the illumination of a light coming from outside both our rooms? What would that light be? There were no lights outside our door except a dark bulb that was a few steps farther from our rooms. It could not be mistaken for a "bright light". Or did Marthe see through a dream the same light I saw but one that is coming from the corridor, passing through our room and going through theirs, illuminating the "sarcophagus"? Again, what was it?

It gives me the creeps to think about it now. I'd rather not dwell on the reality of the sarcophagus. I'd like to think it's a dream. Period. And I'd like to think my eyes had adjusted to the dark. Oh well, I think I heard the admin person say they changed the corridor lights so it's brighter now.

It's just the corridor light. Period.