I had been dreaming about a bridge under construction just before I woke up Monday morning. It reminded me of a bridge I’d seen being built when I was a child, and I felt that it would allow me to travel back in time if only I could cross it.

Weirdly, there seemed to be another parallel dream going on at the same time. I felt that it was important to remember when I woke up, but it slipped away despite my efforts.

After a while, I realized that to be parallel, the other dream must have been a bridge to the future. Even outside of dreams, time is not entirely linear as people perceive it. Rather than simply moving into the future, we also change the past by framing it in different ways as we gain wisdom. Both of these “bridges” are works in progress, and their details are always shifting as dreams do.