I was lying by the oceanshore watching a little girl swim. There were other people around. I was somewhat in the water and I kept feeling something hitting my feet. I came more out of the water and this old falcon bird a little colorful maybe wooden artifact (not expensive looking)but it was three feet high washed up on my legs. Everyone was saying look at that. I started carrying it up the sand to my blanket then woke up.

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Angela,
The title of your dream may provide the best clue to what the dream is wishing to communicate. Finding something in the ocean when decoded probably symbolizes finding something within the unconscious that may have not be known, fully understood or even repressed.

The little girl in the ocean. The best possibility that little girl is you. The 'feeling' of something hitting your feet probably represents something in your life that affects the total foundation for which your life is built {those experiences in life that have influenced who you are, especially early life experiences}. The falcon may represent higher aspirations, the mythological falcon of ancient Egypt representing the God born to the goddess Isis. The artifact which looks 'wooden' would be the condition of your life due to those early life influence {wood representing feel dead inside}. But this same image offers opportunities for better things {higher aspirations}. Although influences from early life may have 'stunted' personal growth {we all have that wounded child within} you have been able to make advancements in life. That should be your focus, the positive aspects {"Everyone was saying look at that"}.

But there is something you are still 'carrying around' within you that needs attention. If may be the early experience and the influence it left on you {affecting those foundations}. Sand is found next to the ocean {deep unconscious}. Having this artifact {an aspect under a microscope-the examination of this unconscious experience} wrapped in sand may suggest you are ready or need to bring this part of you to consciousness so you can deal with it and put it in its place.

The other possibility of the little girl is she represents something within you that is new and needs discovery. There would not be a great deviation from the above interpretation except the little girl would not be you as a little girl but a symbolic reference to a new aspect of yourself that needs deeper examination.

Look at your life as a young girl and see what may be there that left an influence that could affect who you are now. It would be an emotional experience strong enough to last and influence your life {although unconsciously you may not be aware of its influence-which is quite usual}. Let's eliminate that possibility and see where we are after your examination.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Wow! What insight. The little girl was me. Now i remember being her running into the ocean, then me watching her swim to make sure she was ok. No one else was paying attention to her.

Recently my life has become rocky with everything that I have built for myself. I have been very sad and anxious about it.

I come from a small town and it seems no matter how successful I am I still feel like people reference me with where I came from and that I have divorced parents. I don't feel like I have to prove anything but the family I married into puts a high priority on money and status. And I came from neither.

Recently I have been thinking a lot of how my childhood has affected my love relationships and how I behave.

It seems like everything is coming to the surface.

I do think I have so many things to do and look forward to it.

Thank you,

Angela

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 42 Kentucky

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} female

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Angela,
Using the metaphor of ocean as symbolic of the deep unconscious, once you open the 'flood gates' those unrealized {often repressed] emotional aspects will come roaring into the conscious psyche. The focus of the dream on the little girl is a focus on you as that girl, the symbolic language of dreams addressing unresolved emotional issues that 'began' when you were that little girl, and remain to influence who you become and are as an adult. Everything you have built in your life began then and those influences unconsciously remain. Bringing them to consciousness is a big step. But even a bigger step is resolving the emotional issues that prevent you from being that 'whole' person, something that becomes the focus when we enter that unconscious world of dreams.

Another focus of the dream is being your true self. It matters more what you think of yourself than it does of what others think. It can be hard to focus on that but when you do, put that in place and get your life in balance, you will find doors open when you never thought they would. Jungian psyche is about being whole, finding wholeness through the discovery of our true selves, sorting through the negative emotional experiences that need resolution. You dream is focused on your childhood {we all have that wounded child within}. That suggests those experiences are at the foundation of many unresolved issues. Resolving those issues is what will needed. How you go about that is something that would be in question. But the determination to start, and stay with the idea you can resolve them, want to resolve them, that is the first step to wholeness in life. The Dream Forum is one tool that may help and the many pages I have designed over the past ten+ years at Myths-Dreams-Symbols have a lot of valuable information that can help in that task. What is left is taking the time and effort to discover what is 'within', what that childhood stood for and how it has affected your life as an adult. Mid-life is the time we do begin to look 'inward'. What we find is often frightening. But to leave it undiscovered is much worse than just leaving it to fester and grow. And as long as there are those unresolved issues they will come up in your dreams, the intent to help you realize they are there and need attention and resolution.

"Recently I have been thinking a lot of how my childhood has affected my love relationships and how I behave".

This is the classical sense of mid-life. We begin to look back and realize all the baggage we have accumulated. Even a good life has its negatives. And if there are such great unresolved issues in that baggage, as there most often is, you have to begin to work on them. You will not become any younger, and the older you get the heavier the load. Death enters into the equation. And so does meaning, what is life all about. The hero/heroine of myth is focused on those universal patterns of behavior and you, and I, have to become a hero/heroine to overcome the trials in life. You are at the beginning. A big first step. The next one is even bigger. Where do you go from here?

Jerry

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