THE DREAM - It started out as a get together at our house. He was flicking pictures of friends, and realized there were numerous people he didn't know there. They seemed to be Iraqi's, but in the dream his head was foggy and he didn't want to get upset. He hands the camera off and decides to go down to the lake. It's the same lake he grew up on, and it is of course right outside our house. He notices a sunfish in the water before he steps in, but thinks he'll be fine due to it's distance and the fact that they only bite when you get close to their nest. Of course the moment he stepped into the water the sunfish swam the distance to him and started to bite him. The biting hurt a lot, he said it could have morphed into a piranha at that point as well. He also said it was talking to him,...."talking a lot of crap." He manages to grab the fish out of the water and chucks it across the lake. But rather than the fish splashing in the water a few yards away, it takes flight and comes back after him. It had turned into a hummingbird, and started in on biting him. It also continued to talk a lot and was basically a jerk. He can't remember what it said, he just knows it was talking crap. He runs back in the house but doesn't manage to close the sliding glass door before the bird comes through. At this point he suddenly has a screwdriver in his hand and manages to grab the bird. It tells him at this point not to do it, that he'll be sorry and he'll regret it. The bird says that over and over again before he puts the screwdriver through the birds neck. At that point the bird is now our 9 year old son, with the screwdriver still in place in the neck. He woke himself up at that point.

THE REALITY The dreamer was just getting ready to deploy for his third tour of Iraq.

THE INTERPRETATION If a soldier is deploying to Iraq then he needs to get himself into a different mindset. The morphing in this dream links to his need to get into army mode. In army mode he is not willing to trust (especially in Iraq) whilst in family mode he is loving, forgiving and trusting with his wife and son.

It must be difficult to get out of one mode and into another. There will be a short period when he is in both modes. You can never truly shut off the army mode, especially when you have been through Iraq. You expect an RPG to come at you at any moment.

The dream features two sets of distinct symbols. One set links to his family and familiar places around his childhood home. The other set features Iraqi's and piranhas. The piranhas seem to be symbols for wartime. They are utterly ruthless and unforgiving, just like insurgents.

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "I am already starting to get into army mode. It's difficult whilst I am around my son." So in other words the dreamer was already starting to get a little jumpy and anxious about deploying to a war zone.