Dear Daughter

Time to psychoanalyze your father. So you probably don’t know that your father loves aquariums? Alright, I know that you’ve had to visit probably too many due to my love of fish and corals. There have been periods in my life that aquariums added to the reasons  for Why Life is Great.  But they have also tortured me for many years in my sleep – like some children.

To this day I have reoccurring dreams about aquariums – never good! I had one last night, thus the post. The dreams usually come in two different varieties. First, where water is spilling out everywhere, going all over the house. I’m concerned about the house being destroyed by all the water, but I’m also worried about the fish inside the aquarium running out of water and dying. So do I dump more water into the aquarium, which will just spill out into the house or fix the leak and possibly have the fish die? There is never a conclusion to this dilemma.

The second type is that while I’m enjoying my aquarium, I suddenly realize that I have other aquariums that I’ve been ignoring for months. I have not fed the fish, cleaned it, added water or anything. Usually by some miracle there is just a little water left at the bottom of the other aquariums and somehow the fish are still alive. Panic ensues, I have to refill the aquarium and feed these fish. How in the world could I have forgotten about these other aquariums. What’s even more irritating is that in my dreams these ignored aquariums are sitting just below the aquarium I’ve been admiring and taking care of all this time. They are in plain sight.

I don’t really know what this means, but I hope the aquariums are not a symbol for my children? I do believe that it does signify that we worry about things we care about and fear neglecting them or having harm come to them.  However, we cannot let our fears prevent us from engaging in activities that bring us joy…at least while we are awake.

Dad

P.S. – I feel another aquarium coming on.