Thursday, May 14, 2009

Non-sequitur: a fish

I awoke today from a crystalline dream about a fish I had as a child.

It seems as though to achieve official blogdom, a blog must have the occasional random entry. This entry will serve that purpose. While this blog is an attempt at chronicling my professional meditations on UI/UX I do state that it also observes my pursuit of life and liberty.

Since I was laid off almost two months ago (where has the time gone?) my sleep pattern has changed radically. Mostly by that I mean I now sleep occasionally--almost regularly. In fact last night I overslept. Around the time the alarm went off I was in the spell of a most compelling dream. I turned off the alarm in a state of semiconsciousness and managed not to fall out of the dream.

The dream was about a goldfish from many years ago. Somehow I had discovered it still alive while going through some odds and ends that I still have at my mother's house. It was clearly ecstatic to see me and when I put my hand in the pristine water of the fish bowl it pressed against my hand affectionately like a loyal dog. I felt that the water needed to be changed and as I followed my old water changing methods the goldfish kept trying to escape. I managed to keep it in the bowl but as I set it down to resume cleaning this very persistent fish started climbing over the edge of the bowl in a most unfishlike manner.

I lowered the water level and set the bowl on a towel as it had gotten wet on the outside. After doing so I again turned to resume cleaning duties. With this the fish started jumping out of the water like a dolphin at an aquarium. Flipping in the air...attempting to keep my attention.

I brought the fishbowl downstairs to show to my mother and brother for whom the fish continued to perform its antics. They were spellbound by its very athletic prowess. My fish was most definitely a special fish.

When I finally woke hours later the dream was still fresh in my mind's eye. My love for the fish was strong and I was struck with how much I missed it. I remembered vividly understanding that the fish wanted me to dip my hand in the water--it wanted to snuggle against me. I had a connection with it such that I knew that behind my back it was trying to get out of the bowl to follow me. I intuited that it wanted me to be impressed with the tricks it had learned. And the whole time, I was in awe because this fish was decades old and had managed to find sustenance and keep its own bowl clean in my absence.

I don't know what the dream means, but I woke up happy and refreshed from what was an amazing dream and a very restful night of sleep. What an amazing dream!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!! 68, woo!

3 comments:

  1. I'd be happy to analyze this for you. It's meaning is two fold. First, you have found something you once thought you lost. Having rediscovered it, you came to realize it was even better than you had imagined. Secondly, our parents save the silliest stuff from our past sometimes. Perhaps some if it is more valuable that we realize. :-)

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  2. Maybe the fish is yourself or more specifically, yourself from an earlier period. You've rediscovered yourself and found that you're a talented, likable person.

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  3. Maybe that fish is in my mom's attic right now!! I better hurry and check! :)

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