Michella Clark, local author, businesswoman and pioneer for Douglas County’s open space preservation, recently published Practical Dreaming, a guide to understanding and interpreting dreams. The book provides a framework that invites dreamers to evaluate their nighttime visions to discover how they might conquer everyday challenges.

“I know a lot about dreams because I’ve been an avid dreamer all my life, and I have kept journals of my dreams for the past 40 years,” Michella said.

Practical Dreaming is not simply a dictionary where symbols are matched to arbitrary meanings. The book is a manual for interpreting dreams individually and helping to decode solutions to problems.

“Dreams can help you with fears and worries; some dreams are what I call clearinghouse dreams, and they are there to clear out and start again,” she stated. Michella is confident each person has the key to his or her own mind, and added, “Your dreaming self is very well known to you and comes up with things that only you would ever recognize.”

Michella also believes in the power of intuition, something that guides her philosophy and that she says is a a gift that we are all born with.

“It can help with big things and small things in your life, and it’s all yours,” Michella stated. “No one needs to interpret your cards, read your palm, or ask you what time you were born.”

Michella also discussed the difference between waking dreams and sleeping dreams and how she does not see much of a difference. “Sleeping dreams tell you the mythology of your story and waking dreams allow you to put it to action,” she said.

Before pursuing her career as an author, Michella helped write the story of Douglas County’s idyllic landscape. Currently a resident of The Village at Castle Pines, she has lived in Douglas County since 1990, first residing in Parker, where she owned and operated a large-scale horse farm. Drawn in by the open space of the county, Michella began her work as the first president of the Douglas County Open Lands Coalition in 1992. From there, she spent 30 years protecting and preserving open spaces. Nature has been a guiding inspiration for her—in writing, in dreams and in life.

Before her recent book, Michella wrote a novel about a political scandal surrounding water rights. Then life took a new direction. Michella’s real estate company was suddenly thriving, and her attention was focused on her business and the Douglas County Open Space Advisory Committee. In January 2021, after the pandemic forever altered life and business, the idea for Practical Dreaming was born.

In business, in land preservation and in writing, Michella’s ability to listen to the story within her mind has built a lifetime of achievements.

Michella concluded that her successes are not just dreams come true, but that, “It takes organization, it takes perseverance, but it also just takes coalescing around a dream. I think we are all dreamers, and I think dreamers will lead the nation.”

Michella’s next book signing will take place on March 27 at the Authors’ Consortium in the Village (see ad on page 23 for details). Practical Dreaming is available for purchase at practicaldreaming.net.

 

By Marly Holsman; photos by Terri Wiebold