Last night, I dreamed of speckled eggs, Caribbean drug traffickers and of almost drowning near a sinking boat.

THE DREAM

I came to an old restaurant, dark and all wood within, with low ceilings; it reminded me of the old Billabong Bar in Nassau (in the Bahamas), but much bigger and not as dark. I started working there as a waitress and became close with the owner, a wrinkled old white woman, as well as with the other younger black waitresses.

One day, some men came by. One was a Trinidadian Indian who began a deep conversation with the old lady. A dozen speckled eggs sat on the counter top. Another waitress and I wondered why our last set of eggs were seemingly on display on the bar. The conversation between the men and the old lady became more animated, and feeling apprehensive, we took the eggs into the back. Somehow we entered the eggs into an FBI computer program, and found that they were being tracked on a map from Florida to the northern US, moving like ants marching across the screen. So we knew the eggs were significant, and we had to keep them away from these men.

There was a large truck parked out back; I searched under it for a place to hide the eggs. As I did, the Trinidadian came out; he seemed nosy, out to see what we were doing. I left the eggs under the truck and distracted the man back into the place, while the other waitress stayed to secure the eggs.

The dream then becomes less clear to me. My mother and sister are here. We get in a black truck like an S-10, parked behind another car near our house in Long Island, and drive out of the yard and head north. I accuse my sister of careless driving, and say "You should've let Mom drive." She pulls over and my mother gets in the driver's seat, but complains "I don't want to drive." I tell them "Just drop me back home." As they turn around to do so, I realize that when my sister was driving the steering wheel was on the right; now, with my mom at the wheel, it's on the left! I ponder: is the car a reflection, reversed like a mirror image? Why? Does it reflect how different my mother and sister are?

Somehow, we get caught up with the same men who came to the restaurant; they're planning a drug smuggling deal. Two children carrying Heineken knapsacks will stand on the Bluff Hill at a certain time. We are concerned that children are involved, and my mother has information that the men are being set up, so we go to warn them. The two children are there with their knapsacks, but we don't know them and they are not really acknowledged by us or anyone; they just sort of stand to the side. The men decide that since the boats are ready they wil lgo as planned tonight, but the part of the plan involving the children will be stopped. We are relieved that the children will not be involved.

We met the men down at the water, on a dock. As our meeting breaks up, I notice a large boat tied up right by us. Divers with large metal clippers and chains are doing something to it. Suddenly, the boat starts to sink! The divers emerge, laughing.

I fall into the water, and the sinking boat starts sucking me under. But one of the men saves me.

Somewhere in the dream, I wake up and see the numbers 11-22-11.

NOTES

Things I think might be significant: a dozen speckled eggs, an old lady, a Trinidad/Indian man, drugs, smuggling, drowning, children being saved. Insights I found across the web:

ON EGGS

A bird's egg with the shell intact can represent a new beginning in your life. To see a crate of eggs denotes that you will engage in profitable speculations. To see bird eggs signifies legacies from distant relations, or gain from an unexpected rise in staple products. To see or eat eggs in your dream, symbolizes fertility, birth and your creative potential. It indicates that something new is about to happen. The book Theatre of the Mind says the egg is extremely propitious and means eternal life. It is self contained life, absolutely perfect inside the shell. An egg can also be the individual soul or person who must break through the shell in order to be born, or to see God face to face.

ON SPOTS

Marks such as spots, speckles and freckles represent sins and faults.

ON DROWNING

--To dream of drowning, denotes loss of property and life; but if you are rescued, you will rise from your present position to one of wealth and honor.

--To dream that you drown or in the midst of drowning is a bad omen as it pertains to the health of your business and partnership activities. If you die, your business will fail and a great loss will occur for you but if you are rescued and revived, then you will have a good friend step in and save your business. Other aspects of this dream deals with your relationships and can be interpreted as with a business.

--Dreaming about drowning is common and it invokes fear. However, it may have positive significance. This dream suggests to the dreamer that he may be overwhelmed by unresolved emotions, old issues, or a current crisis. It suggests that a release of the old is necessary in order to emerge and begin anew. This dream serves to awaken the dreamer to embrace and to effectively cope with problems and negativity in his life.

ON WARNING

To dream that you are warning someone, suggests that you are able to recognize the dangers or negatives in some situation. You need to bring this to the surface.

ON THE OLD LADY

To see an old woman in your dream, indicates aging and growing old.

ON SAVING CHILDREN

To save a child, signifies your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed.

ON THE DIVERS

To see others diving in your dream, represents psychological and emotional balance.

ON DRUGS

... if you use drugs rarely or never, then this dream could represent a need to get well, to escape from daily stress, and a desire to get quick relief. The drugs could be suggesting a need for healing and getting in balance. Your unconscious mind may be suggesting outrageous things in hopes that you get the message to "have fun, dream dreams, and get out of your own head!" ... The message in the dream about drug use is most likely not encouraging you to use drugs but it may represent a need to feel better or get better.

EDITOR'S NOTE

What strikes me isn't the dream itself as much as your interpretation: looking online for insight about elements of the dream. It's everyone's first impulse these days--you can find answers online if you look hard enough, right? Wrong. Dream dictionaries can't put your personal eggs and divers and drugs in context. You have to do it yourself by looking NOT at the things in your dreams in isolation, but how they act--and interact. What themes repeat?

• These EGGS aren't cosmic symbols of wholeness (or lunch), but something to protect; when kids appear later needing protection from another shady deal by the same guys, it hints the kids and the eggs represent the same thing. And while speckles could mean sins I guess, they could just be... speckles. Know anyone with freckles? Or who wears leopard prints or polka dots?
• "DIVING in your dream represents psychological and emotional balance." But these divers who laugh as they sink a boat...balance? No way! They're saboteurs. We don't know their goals or reasons, or whether they're parts of you or people you know up to something shady, but it's hard not to interpret them as "sabotage under the surface."
• The SHIP they sink could be a business, yeah, but maybe not yours; it wasn't your ship. Though the turbulence from its sinking pulled you under! Someone close to you? But it could just as easily be a friend-ship or a relation-ship. There's a warning here all right, but you'll have to look hard at the people around you. Who's sabotaging who?
• DRUGS can mean healing or escape, sure, but these drugs aren't used or even seen in the dream: they're smuggled for profit. The dream seems ambivalent about cutting corners to get ahead--the smugglers aren't to be trusted around fragile things like eggs and kids, but they deserve to be warned rather than left for the FBI to catch, and in the end one of the smugglers saves you from drowning.
• KIDS can mean a part of you, yes, but couldn't they also be real kids in your life that illicit dealing of some kind is putting at risk?

With a puzzling dream like this, you might try just ignoring symbolism entirely, and just looking for repeating patterns. Dream researcher Calvin Hall asked broad questions like:

• Was the dream scary, fun, angry, sad, dull, exciting?
• Were you just a witness or did you take part?
• Were you alone or in a group?
• Were there conflicts? How many figures were friendly, neutral, hostile?
• Did trouble arise in one place (work, school, family)? Or from one type of person (gender, age, race)?
• Similarly, was some type of person, thing or place consistently helpful?
• Under the scenery changes, do most of your dreams share one pattern?

With that in mind, here are some patterns I see:

• Groups with secret plots: Waitresses hide eggs, FBI secretly monitors them, guys smuggle drugs, and divers sabotage a boat. Over and over! So in your real life, who's scheming about what?
• Women guard the innocent: waitresses protect eggs, your concern for the kids... versus:
• Shady guys: not just the smugglers, the divers too! In the dream, women are all protectors and men are all up to something! Does the dream reflect the real people around you, or challenge your conscious view of them? The dream may be saying "Trust your girlfriends but dump the men"... but could just as easily be warning "You think all guys are crooked, and you get what you expect, girl!" Your next dream may clarify which... I dunno. But there's something about gender here.
• Your groups co-operate despite all their secrets. No lone wolves in this dream! Or thieves falling out, or even just blabbing and blowing their cover. All these shadowy organizations have efficient team players! Strange, but reassuring. All that scheming, yet you don't get drowned or arrested or shot.
• A billion people have dreams where their mom's in the driver's seat (and never takes them where they want to go). But in your dream, your mom doesn't want to be "in the drivers' seat". The driver's seat even shifts left and right depending on who takes responsibility for steering! It sure sounds to me like the dream's saying it's time you took the driver's seat, steering for yourself despite family pressure--the car (your "drives"?) may even change shape to suit you if you do.
• Here's a more tentative one: what is it with going under big vehicles? Hiding the eggs under the truck and being sucked under by a sinking ship seem parallel, even though the mood is different. The divers going under the boat, you under the truck... I dunno. Suggestive, though.

Of course I don't practice what I preach! I get all symbolic myself, only to find a few days later that my dream was literal...

--Chris Wayan

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