Last night I had a single bite of lobster dipped in butter. It tasted delicious.

Some background: for probably about 20 years, I’ve been what I’ve considered vegetarian. For the first 13 years of that, though, I would occasionally eat fish or seafood. Not often, maybe once every three months or so, and usually for convenience, when I was at a restaurant or visiting non-vegetarians. In 2006, I had a dream that caused me to reconsider, and since then I haven’t eaten any meat at all, including fish or seafood.

So, last night I was visiting my Mom and my Aunt at their dinner time, and for some reason I wanted to find out if I still liked lobster. And I do. I don’t plan to start eating it regularly or anything. I was just curious. I ate it and moved on, or thought I did.

During the night, I found myself dreaming of seafood. The two dishes that lingered in my consciousness upon awakening were ones I’ve actually never had in waking life. One was “spicy crab stew.” Another was a Cajun dish called Étouffée. Frankly, I don’t know how I even know that word. I looked it up when I got up this morning, and sure enough, it has seafood in it.

Am I remembering a past life? Feeling subconsciously guilty about eating the lobster? Wanting to add seafood to my diet once again? Connecting psychically with some dear friends who are visiting New Orleans right now? I’m not sure. What do you think?