Kelly Moore used a magazine contest to explain the value of dream interpretation.

Moore discovered the “Your Life, the ‘Reader’s Digest’ Version” contest, which asked readers to write about their most valuable life lesson.

“It sounded like good reading,” Moore said. After two weeks, she decided to enter the contest.

Moore had never written about spirituality, a huge influence on her life. “I was uneasy about inadvertently suggesting that I’m a dream or spiritual expert. In the end, I felt like I had a message that might help someone,” she said.

Her composition discussed learning to listen to the wisdom and symbolic language in dreams. “As I’ve watched friends go through heart-wrenching changes like divorce and foreclosure, I wonder … were there warning signs they missed? If someone had taught them how to listen to inner wisdom, would their lives be better?”

Even people committed to churches continue to make bad choices, she said. “I wish the spiritual community focused more on teaching people how to hear spiritual guidance, how to grow.” She hoped her article might cause someone seriously to consider a recurring nightmare.

Moore shared an excerpt: “Over the years, my dreams have … illuminated harmful attitudes within me and even told me about difficulties my friends were experiencing so I could help them. My waking intuition is touchy and alarmist, prone to obsessing over trivialities. The symbols in my dreams, however, come from a loving guide, a deep, reliable well of knowledge and peace.”

The contest had 6,653 entries. “I’m looking forward to reading the 12 winning entries in March,” Moore said.

Moore won several writing contests for fiction when she worked as a technical writer in Florida.

Her husband Matt is a geologist at Great Southern Engineering. They both hold graduate degrees in geology. Their children are Samantha, a first-grader at Horizon Elementary School, Jacob, who attends pre-kindergarten at Asbury Weekday, and Nathaniel, 18 months.

“We were thrilled to move to Madison last spring,” she said.

For more information, send email to km_moore@bellsouth.net.