I have been having dreams of fish lately that I feel may be connected to this dream that I am about to share. (In the two previous dreams, I caught a large and impressive fish, in the other I saw two huge fish with pinkish feet-type fins swimming down a clear stream in front of my home. I pointed them out to my husband and we watched in awe. Our dog actually chased after them, jumping on one before disbanding!)
But OK. My dream last night was so intense and bizarre, and I need help to understand it.
I was watching a video, but it ended up that I was in the video, if that makes sense. It was about a man who had escaped Alcatraz, but no one knew it expect the director, of course, and a couple other people. I was in total disbelief that he could have done it, and of course felt empathy because such an experience would be so alienating and impose so much secrecy and guilt on a person. Anyway, I embarked with this man on a journey BACK to Alcatraz, I suppose because he was going to prove to me he actually escaped, and he had to pick up some stuff from his jail cell (ha-ha). We were going to cross the ocean, and he said it would be fine to walk across because it always had a layer of ice "two feet deep" on top. I started walking on the water, but soon enough it became thin, and we fell into a cold ocean with small bits of ice floating here and there. I remember thinking that I should have known better, because oceans never freeze over. The ocean was quite vast and the shore was so far away, I felt we would never make it. A gentle wave came, but otherwise the water was calm. We started to swim and made it to the shore where the prisons was. We had to climb a fence with barbed wire at the top and then scale a wall to climb into a tiny window where his cell was. It was packed with items. He grabbed a stack of papers he wanted to take back. They weren't quite fitting in a binder clip, so I handed him another, but the didn't fit in that either. I wondered how he would get the papers back without getting them wet.
The next part of the dream, I was watching a woman dance on top of the prison. She was letting loose, flipping around, with these huge harem pants. Then there was another woman, also flipping around, in workout machines that were colored bright blue. It was mesmerizing and beautiful to watch.
In the end of the dream, I got a job in a LTSR (long term service residential, a mental health facility). I would have no direct contact with patients other than getting items they needed behind locked doors, and helping them shower, if needed. This part (helping them shower) scared me, and I didn't really want to do it, but I was trying to work through it. The dream ends here.
I feel like this dream has some powerful images for me: prison, icy ocean, walking on water, the mental facility. (I work in mental health, btw, and have experienced mental health difficulties myself) I can't get this dream out of my mind. I didn't feel it to be as hopeful as the other water dreams I have been having. But... any insight anyone has would be appreciated. Seems like there could be a relation here between my experiences with emotional difficulties (depression, anxiety) and my relation to the world, but I am just in awe of this dream and unsure right now. Thank you.