Leaping

I had the most bonkers dream last night. Allow me to set the stage by telling those of you who do not know that my parents live in the middle of nowhere, in the thick of the country, surrounded by trees and wildlife. So there's that. Harris and I went to go visit this past weekend, where I know we talked some about bear sightings, and my Mom definitely mentioned her snake boots at least once. Probably these things were floating in the back of my subconscious as I was going to sleep last night. However, it dawned on me this morning, as I was rehashing this crazy dream, that the dream was my version of an Aesop's Fable. A Ligon Fable, if you will.

In my dream, it was nighttime and I was in the woods behind my parents house. There is an old dried up pond back there (at least I think it is dried up - it has been some time since I have ventured to those perimeters), but in my dream the pond was overflowing with water. I am not sure why I was running, or where I was running to, but in the dream, I ran up to the pond, jumped in, and waded through. I ran a bit more, and then, for some reason, had to turn around and go back. This time, though, when I got to the pond, I heard my Mom cautioning me about snakes, (and I also thought about that one scene in Lonesome Dove - if you've read the book or seen the film, you know what I am talking about), and took time to think before just jumping in recklessly and making it to the other side as I had done before. In the course of my thinking, the water got clearer, and I saw these massive snakes (like the really grossly wide and long ones) laying in the bottom. As I continued to contemplate how in the world I was going to get back across with the (now) knowledge that these creatures were laying there just waiting for me, one snake jumped out of the water and bit me in the leg.

At face value this just seemed like a fear of snakes manifesting in my dreams after spending a weekend in the country. After further evaluation, I have determined it might be telling me something more along the lines of: sometimes it is better to leap before you look.

There has been something in life that I have been hesitating on, trying to chart out all the courses, sending up lots of prayers, making pros and cons lists, so on and so forth, and it dawned on me that maybe, in this instance, it is just time to leap. Stop worrying about all the possibilities. Stop trying to count up the snakes, and just leap into the water and swim like hell.