merry go round

Date: 4/23/2016

I was on a giant merry go round swing that at some points seemed to have a diameter of hundreds of meters, maybe a mile wide at times, but sometimes much smaller. The ground beneath me was mostly sand or dry grass. At the edge of one side was a dirt road with an old wire fence. I rode the swing slowly around and around. For a while the landscape below me was somehow set with small toy armies with little toy tanks For I while I also watched a set of toy planes in the air that I monitored to make sure they stayed correctly aloft. Sometimes the swing circling slowly would be so calm I would fall asleep and wake up in my seat. At one point I woke up and saw I was swinging away from a group of runners starting to run at the intersection of the road, but they were running away from me. Some looked back at me and I got the feeling I was being left behind, that I was supposed to be going for a run, but i fell asleep in the swing and they left without me. I felt sad. When the swing took me back around to the same point in the road I saw coach Adkins (and I think coach Baker) standing at the gate. When I got close I slipped off the swing like a person would get off a ski lift and tried to walk to them. I was dizzy from going in circles for so long and had trouble keeping my balance. When I reached coach Adkins I fell into him and we both fell to the ground together. He was annoyed and paid me no attention, brushing me aside so he could return his focus to the cross country race that was happening next to us. I saw the runners coming past us as they ran along the dirt road and making a left into the road that led away from the land where the swing rotated. I realized that I had knocked him over while he was watching his athletes and that the athletes were much younger than I. It had obviously been a long time since I had been running for coach Adkins and I could see he was focused on his new runners. I was embarrassed I had knocked him down and for thinking he would think talking to me was somehow more important than what he was doing. It occurred to me that I was a middle age man approaching 40. As I stood up and tried to get my bearings I saw some other people I recognized as old teammates from high school and college. Most of them, it seemed, were warming up to race. I could tell they were embarrassed about what I had done and didn't want to look at me. I got back on the swing and it slowly took me away from where I had been. I began to focus more on the toy tanks on the ground and planes in the sky. They began to resemble Axis and Allies playing pieces. Traveling on the swing was making it difficult to attend to their proper placement and the process became chaotic. The sand dunes and landscape below were perfect for my plans, but I could never get things right so I sort of forgot about it. I noticed that some children appeared on the swing in some seats behind me and were having fun. One of them, a little boy, got scared so i reassured him it would be ok and I slowed the rotation of the swing down a bit ( apparently I could control this). When I looked back to see him he was having fun again.. Then I told them I had to go and slipped off my seat. I fell into a winter mountain area from high up and I couldn't see anything around me through the snow (or sand?) in the air. I fell into dark cold water, but the cold was not painful and the water was not frightening. I felt comforted and serene.

AI generated interpretation This dream could suggest that you are feeling left behind in life. The image of the merry-go-round is symbolic of being stuck in a repetitive cycle, with no changes in sight. The toy tanks and planes could suggest that you feel like you are playing a game with your life, and that you are struggling to achieve your goals and make progress. The figure of coach Adkins could represent the expectations you have that you must continue to strive and make progress, but you feel like you are not up to the task. The other runners and old teammates could represent your feelings of being left behind and not being able to keep up. The winter scene could suggest feelings of being overwhelmed and lost, and the dark cold water could suggest a longing for comfort and refuge.