For Now, Your Problem Is Resolved

Thu., Oct. 31, 1996

Nancy Huseby Bloom

Dear Nancy: I am 13 years old with a good family life. I would never run away from home. Maybe you can help me with this dream. - Renata

My younger sister and I are running away from a foster home or orphanage. It feels like a terrible place.

We run through a park and arrive at a lake. There is a dock with a strange creature next to it. The creature has the face of a dolphin with the teeth of a shark.

I am afraid to cross the lake because of the creature. It is just staring at us, grinning. There is a mountain on the other side of the lake and I know I’ll be free if I reach the mountain.

The head of the foster home catches up with us and tells us she was worried about us. I know I will run away again.

Dear Renata: When we spoke on the telephone, I asked you what was going on in your household when you had the dream. You told me that your cousins were visiting for a month and that by the time they left, you didn’t care if you ever saw them again! One cousin, in particular, was aggressive and mean.

Dreams often reflect what is going on in our daily lives. Although you have a stable and loving family, your dream showed you running away.

Did you feel like you wanted to escape from your cousins?

Did you feel abandoned in any way by your parents, causing you to feel somewhat like an orphan?

Perhaps the foster home represented your own disrupted family.

The dolphin is usually a very positive symbol, one that suggests freedom, playfulness and a loving heart. Your dream dolphin has teeth like a shark and you know he’s dangerous. He is the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and could illustrate your feelings toward your cousin.

The dolphin-shark could also represent a part of yourself. Did you feel obligated to be nice and play with your cousin while inside you felt so angry you wanted to hurt him?

The dolphin keeps you from reaching your goal, which is the mountain, where you will be free.

Mountains are archetypal symbols of higher awareness and great clarity. From the heights of a mountain we can see our surroundings with a new perspective.

To reach the higher awareness you must first cross the choppy water with the dolphin-shark. Water is fluid and can represent our emotions. This water is turbulent and unsettled showing your stormy emotional state.

When your mean cousin left and went home, the inner and outer conflict was resolved. Hopefully, by next year’s visit, he will have outgrown his hostile ways and his visit won’t be so traumatic.

This was a great dream, Renata, and I hope you continue watching and recording them.

This column is intended as entertainment. But psychologists who work with clients’ dreams say that dreams can hold a tremendous amount of significance; a particularly disturbing or repetitive dream may indicate the need to see a therapist.

xxxx

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