Sea Turtle Dreams in an Oil Spill Nightmare
It’s 4am and I just awoke for the second time tonight dreaming of sea turtles. In both dreams I had found a young loggerhead sea turtle with a small bit of oil on it. I cleaned it and put it in a bathtub until rescue workers arrived to further care for it.
As I looked out the window in the dream I saw a huge loggerhead sea turtle crawling up on the oil-soaked beach. This grandmother turtle was coated in oil. I ran outside to help her but by the time I got there rescue workers already had her on a stretcher taking her for cleaning and rehabilitation.
Every night I wake up with nightmares about the creatures of the Gulf Coast. Sleep hasn’t been great but tonight a therapist friend of mine was staying at my mom’s home–in the dream. He remained invisible yet I could hear him in the other room. It seems my psyche is working out my stress about this disaster by having the wildlife rescue theme tonight and implanting a live-in therapist in my dreams.
My mom and I chatted last night and she tearfully expressed her love and concern for the ocean. She said, And I don’t know it like you do. Scuba diving has given me the opportunity to claim the ocean as my first home, my true home. I have had intimate encounters with huge sea turtles, tiny arrow crabs, yellow-headed jaw fish and bicolor damselfish…to name just a few. So yes, I am taking the black cloud of oil and the colorless yet more-toxic dispersant filling the Gulf very personally. These are my friends and teachers that are dying.
One Reply to “Sea Turtle Dreams in an Oil Spill Nightmare”
I have been reading each of your blogs and it makes me want to cry with what is happening in the gulf and to the oceans and waters around the world. I just can’t believe that they can’t come up with a solution to fix this diaster. We can put people on the moon but can’t repair a broken rig. As for all the blame…..we all know where that belongs.
Our only hope is for future generations to protect what may be left after we have given Mother Nature such a blow.
Simone…..you really are a creature of Mother Earth and I appreaciate your blogs expressing so eloquently what I feel but can’t express in words.
Keep them coming…..and may your voice make a difference.