A dream I had, on August 25, 2017, after buying a small steel tongue drum from a Tibetan instrument shop on Haight Street in San Francisco:

I am in a large, irregularly shaped but sort-of rectangular courtyard, which is elevated somewhat relative to the surrounding terrain. In front of it, in the distance, is a brownish hill, and behind the courtyard is a plain rectangular apartment building, a few floors tall. Poppa (my grandfather) is to my right. “Look at that bird!” I tell him, pointing to the far-left corner of the courtyard, ahead of us. It is a small black bird with a yellow toucan beak, which has perched there. The sky is filled with ethereal colors, and I see that there are additional birds to the right of this one, perhaps three, each maybe twenty feet away from the last, in front of us. Maybe there are many people here, arrayed as an audience to the birds. I have my phone with me and wish to take a picture or video, but remember that its storage is almost full, so I don’t try. Also, the electricity is off in the apartment building behind us.

Where the toucan-like bird was, is now a little girl, looking to be about five years old, and she calls me forward. It seems formal; we engage first and I step forward but then she asks whether I am “Michael the boy” or something like that. And I answer “yes, I am a man” and she smiles. I take another step towards her. She holds my hand against her cheek, and leans her head to the side while talking. She talks with a fantasy accent, which has a British inflection (maybe like the elves in Lord of the Rings), where her words are more distinctly pronounced, as well. She says her name is Mickelbol, and that she will give me the gift of more thunder. I wonder what this means, for just a moment. She seems to be meditating, and concentrating, now. Slowly, rain starts falling; it’s not the kind of rain where there would be thunder, but it is significant rain, not too hard. Electricity returns to the apartment building behind the parking lot sort-of courtyard, and the windows are illuminated with a yellow glow; there are a few people in the building, now. I pass the spot where Poppa is, to my right when facing forwards, and he doesn’t celebrate this gift but rather just seems to have a quiet awareness, welcoming me back to my place. He was in a kind of stasis chamber, like a horizontal bed, with his head propped up. The air is now extremely sticky and humid, as the rain continues.

In reflecting on this, it occurred to me that the girl was the spirit of my new drum. The rain represents forgiveness. The apartment building is how the rain of forgiveness or emotion grants turn-on and electricity or life force. According to DreamMoods: “To see a toucan in your dream denotes paradise, relaxation and ease. This dream symbol may also appear as a pun on ‘two can.’ In other words, two can do it. It is about a partnership, collaboration or teamwork. You cannot do everything yourself, but two can do it.”