Published on April 22, 2006 By AvantiTexan In Home & Family
I had a dream the other night that really stuck with me. I was out fishing with my dad, I am not sure where, but it was salt water and shallow enough to wade fish.

As I was walking around in the water, a man kept passing by with a colander full of fish. Apparently he was skimming the top of the water with this colander and oddly enough, he was catching fairly good sized fish for the method he was using.

I, however, was fishing with a hook and sinker set-up for fishing on the bottom, but I was using it like a lure. The strange thing is that I had not a pole; I was using my bare hands to reel in and cast the line.

My dad was also there, I don’t actually remember seeing him, but I do remember talking to him in my dream. He was also wade fishing, but using a real lure and a pole. As I recall, he was catching lots of large fish of varying types. I kept asking him how he was catching so many and he told me every time to do exactly what I was already doing. That wasn’t much help and I remember being very frustrated.

Then, as the tide began to roll in, I was taken by a very strong, strange fear. This was a fear of something lurking in the water, waiting especially for me. I was trying to tell my dad and that very odd man with the colander that we needed to get out of the water, but neither one of them were listening to me. I began to wade around in circles, hoping to confuse whatever was hunting me while at the same time trying to cause enough commotion to perhaps scare it away.

I looked and searched around for some sight of land, but all I could see was the circle of water around me in about an eight foot diameter. The fear was consuming me, yet I could not get away from it, and no one else felt it, I was alone in my terror.

Comments
on Apr 22, 2006
What a dream. Sometimes dreams mean absolutely nothing....and sometimes our dreams are meaningful and let us see "inside our psyche"... I am no dream expert but just know that I am ALWAYS here for you son. ALWAYS. I will never forsake a family member...and when it comes to my children...I will move heaven and earth for them. Son, I love you more than you could ever imagine and I really miss you...our talks, bible conversations, working on the car, fishing, watching the game, just being with you. You are my best friend and no one can take your place. I am here for you night and day...24/7.... 365...you know I am not very good about calling people...but I am always up for a conversation...Give me a buzz ANYTIME son! Can't wait til you guys get back....the fishing is gonna be hot!!! just like the coffee! I can't wait to see you son.. you are an incredible man and I am so proud of you. I love you man! Dad
on Apr 22, 2006

Wow,  that's the most moving and full of love post I've ever read anywhere!  what a wonderful father!

about your dream,  if you wish,  I can look in a book I have about dreams?  animals, numbers, colors, are all part of our dreams.  Even if we dream in black and white.  Sometimes a "thing" will stand for something else in real life. 

,  one night I went to bed hungry and dreamt I was floating down my hometown creek on giantic doughnut!  everyone had their own doughnut or roll to float on!  I got up and went to the kitchen for a snack!

on Apr 22, 2006

I think you'll like this,  from my book it says about dreaming of fish:

fish have commonly been used to symbolize divinity,  and often stand for the spiritaul abundance that feds all men and women.  In dreams they can also represent insights into the unconscious.  Fish caught in a net and brought to the surface represent the emergence of these insights into the full light of consciousness.

 

on Apr 22, 2006
Jeremy, I tend to go less for the actual symbols in the dream (as Dad said, sometimes they are meaningful, and sometimes they are just things that are floating around in our heads without any significance) and more for the emotions and events when I try to decipher a dream.

More than anything, this seems like a dream of anxiety and self-doubt.

Both Dad and the stranger are doing things differently than you, and they are very successful in their efforts. You feel that you are going about things in an odd (and from the context you could even say "empty" way...something important is missing from your approach (i.e., the pole)) manner that is not giving you the results you desire.

In your dream, Dad reassures you that your methods are fine. He expresses faith in your abilities, but you still feel uncomfortable and frustrated by your approach and lack of results.

Something ominous was waiting for you in the water...to me this is an expression of perhaps being anxious and fearful of something to come. Is there anything in your future that you are having fears and doubts about? This could be a reflection of that.

To me, the walking in circles means two things...one is that you are buying time or trying to find a way to avoid this coming thing that you are fearful of...the second thing is face value. You feel you are walking around in circles. That is, lots of movement and effort being exerted, but you're not going anywhere constructive.

This also very much fits in with the previous portion of your dream. In both parts, you are putting out a lot of effort, but not getting the results you want (or results at all).

You mention that you felt alone in your terror. Perhaps you are feeling isolated or unable to share your fears and concerns or your feelings of self-doubt, or maybe you are sharing them, but you are not getting the kind of feedback that you need to feel reassured.

I think the fishing aspect of the dream is due to your love of fishing and the way you associate it with Dad (who in your dream, more than just being Dad, I think probably stands in as a symbol or source of wisdom). I could be wrong (about all of this, even), but I think the actual theme (fishing) is kind of a random thing your brain came up with and less meaningful than the events and emotions in this dream.

Summary: Something frightening to you is on the horizon, and you feel alone in your concern and unready to cope with it. You are feeling self-doubt or inadequacy of some sort about some aspect of your life. You feel that there is something missing, and perhaps you've even identified it, but you feel powerless to change it and are frustrated by your inability as well as the inability of others to guide you.


Let me know what you think.

Love you.

PS - As I'm thinking back on our childhood, I remember you used to dream about water/the ocean a lot when you were little, too.
on Apr 22, 2006
Sorry that I have to do the responses this way, I'm a little slow sometimes and can't get the quote thing to work.

lostintexas - Thanks so much, Dad. You have always been there for me and I know that you always will. You're the best dad a son could ever dream of having. And even better than that, you too are my best friend. Love you.

trudygolightly - Yeah, he is a pretty awesome father, in fishing terms, he's a keeper! Thanks for the info from the dream book, with my work being of a religious nature, the "divine" fish seem to fit in. Definitely something to think about, thanks.

Tex - I was hoping that you would reply (to be honest, if you hadn't replied, I would have emailed it to you). You have always had a gift for looking at dreams. There are definitely some things in the future that scare me and many things that are causing me to doubt about what I am doing and the decisions that I have made/will have to make.

What you said about the circles is very interesting. Amanda and I both feel that we are "walking in circles" at times, not making a difference.

One other thing that I just thought of as I was re-reading what I wrote about my dream, I couldn't see dad, but I could talk to him and hear him, much like it is now, huh?

Thinking of childhood dreams, do you ever remember me telling you about a dream about a compound with gray brick walls and then a dream about coming out of the ocean and walking into a cave? I used to have those dreams over and over again.

Love you too sis.