Dream reveals invisible hazards

Our dreams sometimes employ images from our childhood or past surroundings to evoke a frame of mind relevant to today’s circumstances.  Consider this example:

Dear SMYD,

I dreamed I was competing with a man at work.  (I’m brand new in my profession and he has 19 years’ experience.)  Nevertheless, I really want to beat him at a game we’re playing, maybe because at work, he’s one of those people who has to be right all the time!  In the game, we’re supposed to find and tag items that are camouflaged in a picture, kind of like the old hidden picture puzzles.  He’s much faster and more skilled than I am at spotting and tagging the items, but I’m gaining on him.  That’s it!

This dream reminds me of a picture that used to hang in my grandmother’s house.  I think it was called The Bewildered Hunter.  In it, a hunter and his dog stand near a cave in a wooded scene.  That’s all you see unless you take a closer look.  Then you can see a deer, a bear, a pheasant and other game blending into the scenery while the hunter and his dog stand there oblivious.  This has me wondering why I’d be thinking of my grandmother’s furnishings now.  She died when I was 8 years old and I haven’t seen that picture since then.

Signed,

Bewildered Dreamer

 

Dear Bewildered,

Our dreams rely on the powerful teaching tool of metaphor to explain complex circumstances and emotions to us.  The creative juxtaposition of familiar objects and scenes with new or novel ones offers the unique and provocative stuff of dreams.

To this end, our dreaming selves seem to maintain extensive catalogs of images and situations which we’ve encountered, observed, or even heard about second hand over the decades of our lives.  Just the right memory is plucked from the past and placed in the present to evoke an insightful response.

Your dream has chosen the image from your grandmother’s house perhaps to prompt the frame of mind that gripped you when you studied it as a child, delighted and engaged by its playful deception.

Does that apply to you and your new profession?  Your dream suggests that you earnestly want to succeed, of course, and to compete with a peer who’s experienced and perhaps a bit arrogant.  It also suggests that there may be more going on around you than you’re able to discern.  As a rookie on the job, you can’t expect to know and understand everything.  Experience will sharpen your eye and your instincts.  

The approach of a child who wants to learn and grow can be most beneficial in a new and challenging workplace.  But exercise caution also, Dear Dreamer.  If your new peer and competitor really insists on being right, he may be more deceptive than you realize.  Some of the things obscured from your view could work against you!  Don’t get so caught up in the competition that you lose sight of your surroundings and greater goals. 

Sweet Dreams to You!