I rarely, and I mean rarely, remember my dreams, but this morning was different. When I first became aware in my dream, I was completely under water. In fact, the entire world was under water. Breathing was normal as if there was nothing unusual about being able to breath completely submerged.
I remember being with several people, who remained faceless. I was at ease with these people because we would chat with each other, but I have no recollection of actually speaking, only that we were comfortable with each other. We wandered about, walking as if we were on dry land, when suddenly we found ourselves on a ship (still underwater). My friends and I were gathered together by an unseen authority, as if we were being arrested or detained for being stowaways.
Next we were taken down below to a boiler room, where we were made to shovel coal into the boilers in order to pay for our passage. I remember one of the boilermen speaking to us in a Scottish accent, not unfriendly, telling us how this hard work would “do something” for us—perhaps make men out of us, or something to that effect. The words were not unsettling.
I remember staring into the open boiler door watching the blazing fire when, just as suddenly, my friends and I were once again walking along, still underwater. We came upon the entrance to a cave and were about to enter it when I looked up and noticed something half-buried above the mouth of the cave.
I reached up and took hold of what turned out to be a large Texas flag. (I am from and live in Texas.) The reason I know this is because I unfurled it and was holding it up in front of me with both hands. Then, as suddenly as before, when I lowered the flag I found myself and my friends standing on the side of a steep hill, still at the mouth of the cave. Visible above us was the top of the hill, and down below was a magnificent vista of a shallow canyon, with a river winding through and an incredibly blue sky with puffy clouds floating by. The ground for as far as one could see was devoid of foliage. No grass, no trees, only brown wet dirt as the water that had been covering us had receded leaving nothing but moist ground and a beautiful sky. Then, as if on cue, I awoke.
I do recall that at no time during the dream did I ever feel uncomfortable, or under any stress. Everything just seemed to flow. No hurries, no worries—except I knew it was not normal to be living under water. The water was always clear but due to the depth at which we were, it was also dark or dusky looking, since the sunlight could not reach us. I remember waking peacefully but curious that I could remember so many details.
Background: My wife and I are in the midst of a custody dispute over our 4-year-old grandson and have hired the services of a lawyer. His mother and father are recently separated, and a temporary restraining order was issued against the mother and father in order to prevent the child from being removed from our county and from the school he is attending. The mother came and got the child before the restraining order could be served, however. Since then, he has been living with her and her parents where, according to child protective services, he is not supposed live due to abuse he suffered in that house from a still unknown person. The restraining order has now been served to both parents but the child has not been returned to us. My wife and I both think of him constantly and we worry about his well being. Soon, my wife and I and the child’s parents are to appear before an arbitrator, to decide who will receive sole conservatorship.
—Clarence, Age 46, Married, Texas, USA
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