My worst nightmare: lost at sea.
Growing up I had a lot of crazy dreams. I was chased by dinosaurs that came from the past through a portal at the back of my pool. My house was crushed by a giant scorpion that we then had to fight off. Bears, hunting me. Etc… And, more recently, I’ve had dreams where I’m in a car that is being chased and shot at.
Good times, right?
Interestingly enough, I’ve never had falling dreams. I’ve never had any dreams about work (or school) anxiety. I’ve never really had any of those nightmares that everyone seems to have at some point or other throughout their lives.
And, I’ve never had a dream where I was lost at sea, adrift on the rolling ocean with no land in sight, no supplies left, no company, no hope.
But, the thought terrifies me more than anything else.
The dinosaurs and scorpions were the dreams of an imaginative child’s mind trying to process new knowledge and fears. They hold no power over me anymore. The shoot-out dreams have occurred so frequently recently that I know they are a dream now while it is unfolding and I can use that knowledge to wake up or shift to something different. The bears… well, they still creep me out. But, not as much as open water. Nowhere near as much.
And perhaps that is why I’ve never had dreams about it, because the idea is so completely horrifying that even while I’m dreaming my mind won’t let my subconscious explore the possibilities…
What do you think?
What terrifies you more than anything else?
Write it, link it to this week’s Once More With Feeling post, and publish it to play along in the fun.
Drowning is a fear or mine, or just suffocating. I watched a movie called “Open Water” that would be one of my worst nightmares. Fascinating (based on a true story) and horrifying at the same time.
Haven’t watched that one yet… Not sure I ever will. And there is a new one, with Robert Redford, All Hope is Lost – that looks both great and absolutely horrible at the same time. I may watch it (because of Redford), but… yeah, I may not.
Do you think watching would lesson or increase your terror? Sometimes knowing what to expect (if only figuratively) can make you confident that it wouldn’t happen.
Having said that, my parents took me to see Jaws when I was 6. I will NEVER put myself into a position where I might be lost at sea. Life lesson or child abuse?
Probably both. I don’t remember how young I was when I first saw Jaws… but, it was too young to process it. I didn’t sleep for a week.
“we’re gonna need a bigger boat”
I’m not sure… I can watch movies where being lost at sea happens but isn’t the main point of the plot (castaway, life of pi, etc..) without it increasing my anxiety. But, something like Open Water or All Hope is Lost… I’m not sure they are worth the experiment. Though, again, Redford… he may be enough to draw me in.
I love Jaws, Great Movie. I remember the bit that scared me the most when I first watched it was when they found the half sunken boat and they went in the water after turning on the powerful underwater lights. I remember thinking “why would you go in there, that dark water, where death could be lurking. And then the severed head popped out of the hole in the boat… *shiver*
Yeah… that is one of the creepier moments of the movie for sure.
I usually dream about having to pee, what I wonder does that say about me 😀
That you don’t drink enough fluids during the day and you are dehydrated!
😉
So the copious cups of tea aren’t enough?
Oh, well… maybe you drink too much then. I knew it was one or the other.
😛 😀
hah!
But then tea is a diuretic 😛
Is it now? lol maybe I shouldn’t drink it before bed. 😛
I am in the same boat as you, I love Tea but am always getting up in the night haha.
lol its worth a lil lost sleep
I thought that Matrone, about 18 months ago I thought that 😀
I do love my sleep, if I had to choose between sleep and tea, nature dictates I’d choose sleep. 😀
I make you right there, although in saying that I wish I were one of those people that could do say 5 or 6 hours of sleep only, I hate wasting my day (well night) sleeping.
I’d kill for 5 straight hours…
Last night it was the cat’s fault rather than the kiddo’s. But, yeah… 5 straight hours would be heaven right now.
You wanna know what’s freaky? Crossing the Mackinac Bridge (the bridge connecting the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan). That bridge is five miles long, so for the majority of your time crossing it you’re on some floating road and can see nothing but water as far as the eye can see. THAT’S freaky.
Um. No thanks. I’m not a big fan of bridges anyway.
It’s a disconcerting feeling to say the least.
Disconcerting is putting it mildly.
There is a bridge about 8 miles from me, whilst not very long IS very high, I can feel me feet begin to curl when I go over it. I have to stick to a middle lane and only look forwards.
*sing song*
Just keep driving, just keep driving, just keep driving.
Something like that.
Hahahaha
Yeah, I think I’ll pass.
i remember natalie wood saying that she always had a fear of dark water and that she would fall in it and drown…..as for me, it’s clowns and dentists.
Good times for me – I get to go to the dentist this afternoon, and he is a bit of a clown.
Poor Natalie Wood.
I can honestly say that I don’t have any major fears, except being alone.
And we’re never truly alone! So, you are all set. 😀
One would be losing my Hubby, the other being burned alive.
My dreams are often so gruesome and horrific. Kind of like Criminal Minds but much worse. I wish I could realize I’m dreaming and shift it.
Question everything… ask yourself “am I dreaming” once an hour, get in the habit of it, and then that will carry over to your dreams… and you’ll be able to see something that doesn’t make sense, you’ll know it is a dream, and you can take control and get yourself out of it.
I’ll definitely try it! Anything to not be in those kinds of dreams.
Best of luck!
Why thank you!
Why you’re welcome.
The same thing, lost at sea:
http://trentlewin.com/2012/10/24/burst-plenty/
About as bugnuts as I get. But this is about as close to me as I get, too. Rolling about in time, and then the sea…
Anybody reading this comment should click on trent’s link and read his story! That’s an official kingdom edict.
Are you crazy????? We can’t disclose such things in a public forum…lol All right well maybe you can??? 🙂
Hahaha
You could just make something up. Nobody would know.
I suppose that’s true. 🙂
We are writers after all. Making stuff up is sort of what we do.
LOL well I don’t generally do fiction…but I have been known to spin a tale or two on occasion. 😉
I knew it! 😉
I used to have nightmares about fire when I was young but I seem to have grown out of that. I don’t have much in the way of regular nightmares anymore, although if something scary happens during the day, I may have a nighmare that night about it coming out much worse. IRL I find clowns very disturbing and avoid them. Stephen King’s book “IT” scared the heck out of me. I read parts of it peeking out from between my fingers. Ha!
It’s amazing how many people aren’t fond of clowns. I wonder if that has to do with clowns being pushed on children at too young of an age…
As much of King as I’ve read, I’ve never really been scared by anything he’s written. However, the book “From the Corner of his Eye” by Koontz really messed with my head.
Yeah, being in the middle of an ocean, no land in site, no supplies on board, not even any cover from the sun… not good thoughts.
Not so much, no. Luckily, I can say that from the comfort of my oversized desk chair in my air conditioned splendor office.
haha, And I can say that from my fairly comfortable chair in my basement office.
They have you in the basement!
Probably surrounded by a sea of monitors, and cords running every which direction.
haha, i wished matt, if only it were like that (only with better food)
We all could use better food. Seems like such a simple thing, too. Good food keeps employees happy. How hard is that?
I was thinking of your reference to the Matrix 🙂 i assume that was the Matrix re the lines of code?
Haha, totally missed it. Yes, the lines of code… and really good noodles. But, all I really see is blonde, brunette, redhead…
Brunette, Redhead, Blonde… In that order 😀
I stand corrected. Or, sit, as the case may be, actually. 😛
haha
Nothing…and everything. That’s what I’m afraid of. Help…lol…but not laughing…meh.
Nothing… because we are strong and refuse to let fears dictate how we act.
Everything… because the fears are there constantly, fraying our nerves, and dictating how we act simply by our refusal to acknowledge them.
Drowning, falling from a cliff, buried alive, snakes… this was a good write, DJ. As always, I am stalling!
OoO, buried alive. That’s a bad one. My claustrophobia would have me flailing and kicking and scratching and everything else trying to claw my way out of there. Which, in a way, would be better than the last at sea, because at least I could be doing something, despite the small chance of success.
Stalling is good for pondering ideas and deciding what the picture means to you.
Am I late to the party again? Well, let me tell you that “Jaws” changed my life. I won’t go in the ocean any more. Before seeing it I used to swim in the pool at night without the lights on. after seeing Jaws I would freak myself out in the dark, in the water. It was that opening scene that scared me more than anything. The poor thing attacked at night and the gurgling sounds she made.still bothers me. Soon after seeing the movie I went to Georgia to visit my brother. His wife dragged me to Panama City in Florida. No one I mean no one was in the water. All along the strip at every theater, Jaws was playing.. There were huge signs/billboards: “Don’t go in the water” and a big old white shark showing its teeth. The Mayor of Panama City must have been asleep at the wheel. And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Lucy
Oh my. Well, it’s a good story, and worth sticking to.
I feel like I’ve become less rational about the whole thing as I’ve aged. When I was younger I would boogie board and body surf and spend hours in the ocean because I knew the odds of anything happening were so small it guaranteed I was safe. Then I think I learned that there are no guarantees in this world… and now I don’t really go into the ocean any more. I’ll jump in to cool off after playing volleyball.. but, I never go further out than I need to.
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