Have you ever woken up to the vivid memories of a nightmare still playing on your mind? The type of nightmare that has you waking up with a start, your teeth still clenched, your neck aching and it feels like you haven't slept a wink? That is how I woke this morning at exactly 6.10 am!
No, I wasn't dreaming of goblins and scary monster. My dream involved a train and not the steamy, comforting Harry-Potter-off-to-Hogwarts type train either. It began with me at a station and the children were doing what they usually do...the 11 year old racing ahead to get to the required destination and the 7 year old dawdling behind - with me caught in the middle as usual! The 11 year old had raced over to station seat and was waiting for us to catch up when the ground beneath us started to move. It turned out that what we thought was the station platform was the outside step of the train that was now pulling off from the station.....effectively separating the 11 year old from us. In my dream I was in a panic. I dragged the 7 year old into a train carriage and found out that the train was headed to northern NSW....express!
All the time I was stressing about my poor boy who I'd left at the station without money or supervision. I was terrified that he would have no idea how to get help for himself. I was terrified of the unknown! I desperately tried my mobile but it was out of range. That sick and panicky feeling was indescribable. Finally, after dark, the train pulled into some very small township and I finally had mobile range.....and of course, at that point I woke up in a huge sweat!
So what does this mean? Apart from meaning that for the rest of my day I felt like going back to bed, I wondered if this was my inner sub conscience trying to tell me something. So of course, I googled 'dreams' and this is what I found:
To see a train in your dream, represents conformity and go along with what everyone else is doing. You have the need to do things in an orderly and sequential manner. In particular, if you see a freight train, then it refers to the burdens and problems that you are hauling around.
To dream that you are on a train, is symbolic of your life's journey and suggests that you are on the right track in life and headed for the right direction. Alternatively, you have a tendency to worry needlessly over a situation that will prove to work out in the end.
Hmmmm....so which one am I? My first thoughts were that I am feeling frustration with the fact that my 11 year old is coming into that age where it is suddenly the done thing to question your parents....his life journey is altering paths with ours and I am certainly feeling frustrated by it.But as the day has progressed, I am also thinking that it has to do with the stress surrounding other parts of my life...work, parenthood, uncertainty over some volunteer work that I am doing. And not all of my children are coming along for the ride! I certainly didn't feel like I was on the right track in my dream...in fact I felt like I had lost control.
So are there any dream experts out there who can do a better interpretation? Anyone who can offer an insight into my inner self? Or maybe I am just needlessly worrying. One thing is certain though...tonight I will sleep well!!! Someone pass me a warm Milo and my comfy slippers please....but keep the Thomas Tank jokes to yourself! ;)
