i think it was because of my work stress that i ended up having this interesting and very intense dream last night. and i can kinda guess what this dream meant broadly. you see, out of the so many briefings i had to do and prepare, i was especially stressed out over a particular briefing. nonetheless, i was kinda cool about it and didn't too much a damned over the slides despite knowing it was something i should work on. my cool care-less attitude towards this particular briefing was because after i prepared the draft and presented to my department lead (as she had to lead this brief to a particular member of my top management), she kinda tore it apart yet couldn't really give any clear directions. and i sensed that even my department lead was trying to second guess what to present. and this was becos this top management person i'm supposed to brief is "unbriefable". almost everyone else i'd met thus far shared that regardless of how hard work i worked and what i prepare, i will still be torn apart by this particular top management person. apparently, she simply likes to scold people and make snide remarks just so she could tear people to pieces. and after hearing all these inputs, i started adopting this - "prepare also get killed, don't prepare also get killed, might as well just go in and get killed" - attitude. and i did so cos i wanted to channel my energies to the other briefings that i had to prepare too. i concluded it would be more productive this way... regardless, i was constantly irked and reminded at the back of my head that i have this lingering brief that i had not done enough of... anyway, here's my intense dream:
for some reasons i was in an old lorry (truck, to some), the type that was used often back in the 60's-70s, and it was driven by a tv actor (cannot recall his name, but this person is a small time local tv personality). he was driving the lorry through some rough terrain and i was a passenger in the lorry passenger seat. there was another person beside me - i don't know who but i can only say this was a familiar person as i knew his voice. we were heading home and the landscape was that of my grandparent's village back in the 60s-70s.
we were on the dirt road when suddenly the driver took a detour and drove "cross-country". he started cutting through the grass patches, the metal yards (that had waste metal strewn all over), as he picked up speed. the voice beside me started screaming for the driver to slow down and demanded to know why he went off track and took a different road instead. the voice started sounding fearful and angry. as for me, i took it in stride. i knew the driver knew the road and his way around the area. i was confident he was taking a short cut as the route he took seemed familiar to me.
as we picked up speed, the lorry began to rattle and bounced rather hard. we were after all, travelling cross-country and the grounds were highly uneven. soon, a river emerge and the lorry drove alongside the river. i recognised this river. it was located behind my grand parent's village. i looked into the water and there were many animals. the animals were all motionless and seemed to be frozen in time. amongst the animals was a white dog. it sat motionless with a pleasant looking smily face. it was submerged in the water and stared blankly into no where.
suddenly, the driver drove the lorry into the river. at such a high speed, the lorry crashed into and break the water surface and created quite a huge splash. it moved on towards the opposite bank. but before it could reach the bank, the lorry died. we were all submerged in the water and started sinking. at the moment, everything seemed to disappear and i was simply focused onto the dog. it was obviously dead and seemed to be frozen in time in the water. i reached out to it but it didn't move. it reminded me of sapphie although it wasn't. and next thing i knew, another dog appeared. it appeared to be struggling and swimming towards the bank. i reached out to it and it happily allowed me to embrace it as i carried it in my arms and walk towards the bank.
the dream ended there.
Hi Jeffrey,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting dream. Wonderful in the way that even on a straight, literal level it is a dream of hope and happy new beginning: after a terrible crash and potential drowning it is possible to survive, be a hero and have a new friend. Very nice. A very empowering outcome for a stress dream.
Of course, this is a very symbolic dream. The key to understanding and appreciation is to understand the significance of the two dogs. My sense is they are very complex and multi-faceted: their meaning to the dreamer is not simple and straightforward since any one facet has multiple levels. Too complex to easily discuss.
If you will allow me to focus on one facet and one level I think there is an interesting interpretation: at least, it appeals to me. Only you can tell if it resonates with any truth or meaning for you. It is an interpretation where five characters are one.
The dream takes you back to your roots: on your way home to your grandparents village. You find yourself in an older lorry that belongs to the time: not shiny, fancy and new but well suited for its purpose. If you imagine the lorry is a symbol of the structures in your life: your career, social standing, material possessions we have a vehicle ;-) for moving the story forward.
The lorry is driven by a local TV personality from your past (pity you don't remember his name since I suspect he probably gave you the important insight that you could become a public speaker doing training and presentations, successfully keeping an audience sufficiently entertained to remain engaged. Of course, you developed your own style but he probably still resides at the core). In the dream, he is a risk taker, quietly confident and in control, willing to put on a show (at least, that is the performance he acts). Next to you is a familiar voice: conservative, cautious, risk adverse and eager to stay on the well marked road at a reasonable speed. And you, as always, are in between.
The driver suddenly veers off the road and you ignore the panic of the risk adverse voice, confident in the driver's abilities and knowledge with the familiar enough area. Gaining speed going past the metal remains of materialistic life, and bouncing and rattling cross country (really shaking things up) to a river you recognize and race beside realizing the river and its contents seem frozen in time (great visual). Your eye catches and fixates on a white dog (drained of life?) seemingly smiling content in its stasis with all energy and life drained (has it listened to the risk adverse voice too much to reach this point?).
ReplyDeleteThe driver veers into the river with great speed and energy causing a great splash and continues across the river until the engine gives out and the lorry, the risk chasing driver, and the risk adverse voice sink along with you in the river. Then only you, the smiling dog and the motionless river remain and you realize it is unresponsive to you and dead. All is still, lost in time, until a struggling dog fighting for its life, full of energy to reach the shore gains your attention and it accepts your help and embrace as you stand up and walk carrying it to the shore.
In this interpretation the smiling white dog is your old life, and the dog you saved is your new life full of energy and the will to live. You could say they are your "spirit animals" but all five characters are facets of you. Of course, it wasn't necessary to sink the lorry and risk losing everything in the motionless river of time (we move through time but it is constant and forever: it will take me a while to fully appreciate that thought).
Of course, it is up to you how much attention you are willing to give the risk adverse facet, and how much freedom you will allow the risk seeking facet. If you basically enjoy your career (lorry) there is no need to sink it in a river to make changes: you have that power. Just as you have the power to recover from any unfortunate detours.
I really like this interpretation and it really resonates with me. However, this is not my dream. I hope it was worth the read.
Wishing you happy journeys with your new dog, Edwin
Hey Edwin,
ReplyDeleteYou never fail to amaze me with your abilities to interpret dreams. And yes, what you said do resonate with me to a great extend.
I especially liked how you saw the five figures as different facets of me. Frankly, it never crossed my mind to think it this way. But now that you have mentioned it, it did certainly make a lot of sense. And if I may add, I do not know the outcome of the lorry after it crashes into the water. It simply disappeared from the dream and the attention somehow began to focus squarely on the dog. so, from your chain of thought, I suppose the outcome of the work (in real life) is something still beyond me.
Thanks! Always a pleasure to hear from you.
Jeffrey
and oh, i did consider the possibility that the driver and the voice were me too. and i said so because of the context of my source of stress - the briefing that i was supposed to do and how i, despite knowing the importance of doing it, decided to just ignore it and focus on other areas:
ReplyDeletemy interpretation was that the voice, and the driver were all me. similar to how you've framed it, the voice was the fail-safe me, the driver was on the wheels currently and decide to just ignore the well-trodden safe path and push forward into the "wilderness" or the metal yard. and that the old me, was screaming his heads off, while the driver me continued nonchalantly like as though nothing was the matter despite all the rattles and the bumps experienced. in a very narrow way, in real life, i knew i had to prepare myself well for the brief, but instead, i decide to just ignore it. that was very un-me.
other than that, i couldn't really explain the significance of the dogs, both dead and alive. there's also one thing that i have observed as a trend. and that was the fact that whenever i got stressed, my dreams invariably end up having something very familiar and very old appearing. previously, it was my godmother, or my mum. and this time round,very interestingly, my grandparents' house/ village. heh... i guess it was the sense of familiarity or comfort that was important (instead of my grandparent as i wasn't close to them)
Jeffrey
Hi Jeffrey,
ReplyDeleteGlad this interpretation resonated. This dream is strong enough to have variations and emphasis of different elements. I don't see those as conflicts but as facets and levels.
I sometimes dream about my grandparent's farm (my mother's parents) in stress dreams. To me there is comfort, simplicity, perseverance and deep roots where 5 generations created their own sense of order out of disorder. Not the easiest of lives but they found ways to make it work for them: there is power in that. I think that type of power is what we invoke in stress dreams. Their perseverance, creativity, beliefs, whatever powers we associate with those individuals or our ancestors.
My sense of your dream is the lorry is not all that important. Not really. If you strip away all of the externals, you will still continue on your journey and you will be fine. You will find a way (or dog ;-) to make it work. That is what makes it a powerful dream: you have that power.
Of course, there is no requirement to crash the lorry just because you can ;-)
Best wishes, Edwin