The thought or the idea of recording dreams came to me a long long time ago. Ever since I was little, I almost always had dreams while I slept. Some of them came back to me from time to time, some of them would appear only once and never revisit, and the rest just vaporised with the sunlight and my memory.
I have been too lazy to write down my dreams, but recently I realised that my memory is failing me, I start to lose those little details, important sequences, and the sensual moment which helped me to retain my dreams. Thus, I decided it is time for me to write them down.
Let me start from the beginning, from the earliest dreams I could still remember. There aren't many of them and I only remember short pieces, not the whole story. I once dreamt of flying and men-eating ants invading a town next to the sea. I was walking on the lovely street of the town along the sea shore, the pavements were grey and solid. It was getting late, the street lamps had just been lit up. There are passengers walking by, talking and laughing. I remember there was a little boy or a little girl riding a bike which I almost bumped into (I bump into a lot of different things including human in real life...). There were shops all along the street, the architecture was colourful but old fashioned, styled like the early 20th century, painted in pastel colours like pink, baby blue and yellow. Then I saw a bike, a motorcycle, all black and shiny, it was massive, and there was a man in black leather jacket standing next to it. I was standing and admiring the bike when the ants arrived. There were thousands of them, probably a whole colony all gathered together just for the occasion of hunting. They flew together, sticking to each other, so tightly that no one was sure what they were. We soon realised that they did not come to make friends as they flew along the street, wiping everyone and everything off, leaving nothing left behind. I remember it consumed the shiny black bike I was admiring (don't ask me how they can digest metals, I do not know...), it was weird, as the ants attacked the bike, it just dissolved little by little almost like pixel. By the time I understood what was happening, people were running and shrieking everywhere, the handsome owner of the bike dragged me along to run away from the sea shore towards the city. Along our way to find a shelter, I could see the colony flew around, changing shape, consuming even building blocks (that is why I use the word 'consume' and not eat, as I don't know how exactly do they eat metal or ceramic...). I was terrified and the rest of the dream was blurring and lost. I remembered we entered a building with metal doors, and I was thinking this was not good as the ants could definitely chew it into nothing in minutes. Now to think about the origin of the dream, I think it was probably because I was reading a book at that time about nature, especially about ants who could cross river and devour large animals. Plus I do have personal experience of being bitten by an ant who didn't wish to let go of my finger.
I hope this collection could help me to retain those vivid dreams just a bit longer. Freud reckons that our dreams are connected to our subconsciousness, the big ice mountain hidden beneath the sea level. The tiny iceberg on top is our consciousness which helps us to live within the society and community. Subconsciousness on the other hand is more animal like, one could say it represents the deep dark desires and thoughts of every human being. The subconsciousness is hidden and controlled by the 'me' and the consciousness, but it became active during the night, while the brain rests, and the consciousness slowly drifts away. Dreams could represent all different kind of meanings and significances, while some of them could be connected to sexual desire as Freud explained (I once dreamt of having sex with a were-lion...), others could represent a certain type of mindset. I would dream much more of ghosts if I haven't opened my curtains for a very long time, while the first ray of sunlight could chase all of them away. Hence, a record of the dreams could also be a record of the desires, the state of mind, and everything hidden within the tiny brain of mine.