I have this weird reoccurring theme to a lot of my dreams. Actually, the theme is a group of things. This group makes it into my dreams about once a month. It is a strange phenomena I am still trying to make sense of: orca whales. That is right.
Randomly a killer whale will sneak its way into my sub-conscience and high-jack one of my dreams.
I do not know how long this has been going on. I just know that I finally realized it in college. I would be having the best dream ever...for example a dream where I had wings and could fly anywhere.
.bmp)
My theory is that stress brings these orcas into my dreams. When I was planning for my wedding I think I was fairly stressed. Everyone has an opinion about what you should do and how. One particular interested party was pretty insistent that the classiest thing I could do for my center pieces on the reception tables was put goldfish in bowls. GOLDFISH. I did not think that would fit my theme...or be classy. But my brain must have hung onto that idea with dread. Perhaps because all I could think of was when a fellow high school classmate ate one on a dare at a luau where the center pieces had goldfish in them. My next stressful wedding dream went a little on that theme:
The dream started with me being dreadfully late and my photographer was the only one to tell me I was late. I could not find the wedding and when I got close it was in the wrong place way up a dirt road. I ran up the road in my dress and the red dirt stuck to the sweat and ruined it. Everything looked dead and dry and the wedding place was not ideal. When I finally made it to the top of the hill, I find the volunteers had set up the decorations without the flowers on each table. And all the tables are outside the tent. What do I find on the tables instead of flowers?
You guessed it. Killer whales were swimming away in my center pieces. According to my volunteers it was the "classiest" option.
It was after this dream that I concluded stress brings the orcas to my subconscious. I told a friend in one of my college classes about this strange conclusion and she stated she was jealous. Confused, I repeated my plight with these annoying creatures and she responded, "I wish my power animal was a killer whale."
If I believed in such things I would still have to question that the whales were there to be a source of empowerment or encouragement. Only one dream comes to mind where they were even slightly helpful.
In one of my many crazy dreams I was visiting Florida. An atomic bomb went off just as I was heading to go do some sight seeing. I started running because in dreams you often can outrun something that would in real life just kill you. Terrified, I speed along this old canal that appeared. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I see a fin.
A whale pops out of the water and lunges at me as if to say, "You're not going to make it. Go faster." I do not remember the rest of the dream because when I woke up all I could question was "How did a whale out-stage an atomic bomb in my dream?"
And so a whale appears in all my stress related dreams. Often they are not helpful and sometimes downright violent and the more stress I feel in real life the worse they appear in a dream. As a teacher of a two-year-old class one of the worst things as far as stress goes is having a "runner". We had this little guy in our class who would wait until chaos erupted during the day and then sneak off.
Sometimes he would even create the chaos. Often he would push a fellow classmate down while no-one was looking and then when the crying of said classmate distracted teachers our little runner would make his break.
It was after a week of this disappearing act being a frequent issue that I had a whale dream.
For some reason a field trip to the coast with a bunch of two year olds seemed like a good idea to my subconscious. 
Of course the best place for all these munchkins was upon a high grassy bluff over-looking the ocean. Soon a friendly sea lion came out of the water and waved its little flipper.
The kiddos waved back in delight as the sea lion swam along the shore.
Without warning a killer whale emerged and ate the sea lion right in front of us. The poor little guy let out a yelp, its eyes widened with pain and it was drug under the water by the killer beast.
The children and myself were traumatized and naturally chaos ensued. Our little dasher, per his usual mode, recognized his chance to make his getaway.
Totally unaware of his absence, I am horrified to find as I look out upon the ocean again, the kiddo is swimming right next to the whale. I do not know if he ever made it because I woke up in a panic before the whale ate him too.
How the latest events in my life play out in dreams we shall see. But I am pretty sure I am due for a terrible dream regarding the baby we have on the way. I've already had one where the baby tried to break out the womb alien style. I'm sure the next one will go something like this...
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!
