Swimming with the Dolphins

Last night I had a dream about dolphins. There is a platform building way out in the middle of the ocean, and I work my way down through the different floors of the building. When I reach the bottom floor, there is a large opening, sort of like an indoor swimming pool. The dolphins swim up to the surface so that I can pet them and rub their bellies. A man tells me that this is the first time he has seen the dolphins swim up to where the people are. One of the dolphins has red hair like a clown...lol...you gotta love dreams :) There is also a large cage out in the ocean, just outside of the building. I am swimming with the dolphins in this caged off area; I actually want to be swimming out in the ocean on the outside of the cage, but I am afraid of the sharks. I try to swim in the ocean, but I am too aware of the depth and the threat of sharks. . . .and this is when I awaken. . . .

We all have a need to feel safe and protected. I don't have that. . . .anywhere. Sometimes it seems like working here where everything is sort of a package deal feels like it keeps me safe, but it doesn't. I could lose my job on any given day, and everything would be pulled out from underneath me, not just my income. I think it's more stressful to work here because of that fact, than to work outside of the park where you may lose your job, but you still have your home.

However, I don't think that's what the cage represents.

There is a factor creeping in to my world that I don't know what to do with. . . .the ever growing gloom of our national economy. Looking into this potential move to North Carolina is frightening, but not for the superficial reasons. I have never before worried about picking up and moving anywhere because I've always trusted that a job will be found and a new home will be created. But, then again, the economy has not ever been what it is now. . . .not in my lifetime, anyway.

Dolphins have always manifested in my dreams as awakeners of courage to "swim with the dolphins," to trust and have faith that the ocean currents will deliver me safely upon some wild and distant shore. But how do I make a move to become a teacher when teachers in almost every state are being laid off? It's no longer about trusting that I will find an open job, but of having faith that jobs will be open at all. How do I find hope and courage in the face of this kind of uncertainty?

Yes...I absolutely feel caged and afraid of what's on the other side of this country's inability to protect and defend against this ever present and deepening darkness. . . .