At first they appeared as oversized blobs of black and white, bobbing up and down in the water and as the current drew them closer to our ship, they became barely recognizable as Dalmatians, in their last struggle against what would have been, had we not discovered them, their inevitable death.
Exposure to salt water will do this to non-aquatic species, as I had personally observed years ago in Hong Kong, when I witnessed the bloated and highly deformed bodies of several friends, drowned in a massive, life-taking typhoon.
My attention to the dogs was suddenly diverted to another object, that of a human form and likewise, in the harrowing grips of fear.
No one on the vessel was moved to action. I was stunned as trained, experienced seamen stood motionless at the handrail as if in a hypnotic trance of seizure.
Kicking off my shoes, I leapt (I’ve never been a very competent high diver) into the briny and swam purposefully to the writhing, near-corpse, now observably a male in midlife.
Once the struggle to get back alongside was over, many willing hands reached out to help bring the man onboard and to retrieve me from the ocean.
The two Dalmatians were unceremoniously fished out of the water at my insistence, one perished and the other on finding itself alive, profusely licked my face with gratitude, once it had regained its strength and composure.
I then awoke to the first rays of a spectacular morning creeping through the curtains and into my warm cocoon of a bed.
Not unlike our predominantly unconscious lives, it had been a dream and as I do with every remembered dream, I contemplated its deepest meaning in the most generialised form, without going too much into the content. Fear was the predominant emotion within the dream – fear of the crewmembers getting involved and the consequences thereof, fear of death. So through mustering our courage and bravery, we can overcome our fears and by transcending our fears, more of our Authenticity appears.
What did this have to me?
The answer came back very quickly and clearly
So here we are, just the second day of the highly transformative year 2012 and the Universe is sending me clear message as to what my focus should be on for the next 12 months.
I can but surrender and happily obey.