When I was young I loved the ocean. I loved to swim in the ocean until I almost did drown in Hawaii. But there were two things about the ocean that scared the bejeebers out of me: drowning in a car and tidal waves.

I was petrified of accidentally driving into the water and not being able to get out of the car. Do you remember that movie, “The Stuntman”? There’s a sequence in that film where the hero is stuck in the car underwater. It freaked me out. I had to leave the theatre. I hated it.

I don’t remember ever having been in a car underwater, but to this day I still have this irrational fear of that happening. You could never get me to drive on that highway that goes to the Florida Keys (well, you could never get me to go to Florida; but that’s another story), you know, the one that’s right on the water. No way, no sirree, not Anon. Nope.

The tidal wave thing lasted for years. It involved a dream. I would be at the shore with whoever was most important in my life at the time. Suddenly a huge tidal wave would rise up out of the ocean. I’d look up at the monstrous thing. It was always at least 40 feet tall. Suddenly, I’d realize that the person I was with was missing and the wave was about to break.

At that point, I’d wake up. That would keep me awake for hours. Finally, one night after finally getting away from my toxic family, I had the dream. Except this time the wave broke right over my head. I just stood there and the wave broke and then it went back into the ocean. I was okay, everything was okay. I’d made it through. The next morning I called my therapist.

She said that I had made a breakthrough. She said that I’d never have to be afraid of that dream again. She was right. I’ve had the dream many times again, but the wave always breaks and everything is fine. It isn’t as if there weren’t anymore ‘tidal waves,’ it’s just that I can handle them.

I’m not a believer in the predictive abilities of dreams. I look upon then as emptying the dustbin of the day. It’s good to have a good clean-out every once in a while. Let the waves come, at least in my dreams.