What Dreams May Come

I am standing alone in a shallow pond, metallic pebbles underfoot.  The luke-warm water is clear, but as soon as my foot moves it kicks up cloudy debris mixed with the black and red exoskeletons of dead bugs.  I hear my mother's voice, muted, and far away.  Then suddenly, I am playing a bizarre game of tag.  Someone is chasing me and I am leaping and running through the water, when I spot something up ahead.  Something massive, and dancing under the water like gold sunlight.  I watch it's supple movements and realize it's a sting ray.  My heart starts thrumming in my chest, and I, already panting from the impromptu game of tag, back peddle as fast as I can.  I've awakened a sleeping giant.  It starts swimming toward me.  

I am mesmerized.  I am terrified.  

I do nothing as the pond has suddenly grows in size to resemble a large lake, and the giant has now been joined by two companions.  They are swimming at an alarming speed around me, causing the once shallow pond to vortex like a tornado.  Raw panic slices into me, it is acrid on my tongue.  It is jagged rocks on bare feet.  A wave of water crashes and catches me in the tumult.  There are tidal waves encircling me.  The deafening roar of water fills my ears.  It causes my thoughts and emotions to swirl:  I can't swim.  How am I still alive?  Where are the sting rays?  I see them still circling, still creating their deadly cyclone, swimming upside down in curling waves.  Sun yellow giants against an agonizing cerulean sky.   A half-drowned tree's limbs twist out like suffocated fingers, convulsing at me as the water madly drives me on.  I am going to be impaled.  I close my eyes and tense every nerve in my body.  

And wake up.

What stops me from writing?  What stands in my way?  Pride?  Fear?  Un-originality.  What can I say that hasn't been said already?  How can I stop the tide of words that swirl meaninglessly in my brain, and calm it into something that will become tranquil and life-giving?  How can I share my inner-most feelings with complete strangers?  Or share my observations memorably?  Can I withstand to their criticism?  

Will it pierce me?  Do I dare disturb the universe?

Will I wake?