D is for Dreams. A-Z challenge. Words of Change Day 4

Dream |drēm|

verb

indulge in daydreams or fantasies, typically about something greatly desired.

My childhood summers were spent at Elwood Beach, on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. Every morning we arrived before the Life Saving club opened and only left when the night air made us shiver, a storm threatened to batter us, or we ran out of food. The ocean and sand provided relief from each other. Mum (with flawless skin) always sat in the shade of the beach umbrella making sure we behaved. It was our summer house, without walls. If the car broke down we took the bus, it was the best Papa could do.

I spent countless hours on the shore burying my feet in the sand, staring at the horizon, dreaming about what was happening on the ships I saw in the distance. Where did the sea end? Was it a giant waterfall, the end of the world, or just a place where ocean met the sky?  What sort of people lived and worked on those ships?  I wondered where they came from and imagined where they were going.

Once, feeling adventurous, I borrowed a rubber tube and floated on currents, south towards Tasmania, Australia's island state. I had a nap, and when I woke up the shore was on the horizon. I was still in the bay but a long way from home. I had no idea which way to go.  I asked a boat load of partying strangers to point me in the right direction. I paddled back fast, anticipating a search party, I got quite a surprise. My family was unaware, napping or just opening their eyes.  I kept my adventure a secret and continued to fantasise.

Many summers later I eventually made my way to Tasmania, where Crown Princess Mary of Denmark was born and where I met my Danish Captain. I sailed there hundreds of times, on a big ship, my first job at sea. Beyond the horizon lay untamed, frozen Antarctica. I met scientists that travelled there, and sailors who described their heroic adventures, sometimes over a drink, sometimes over more.

A few more summers passed, and I was about to sail through The Suez Canal - west bound on the first leg of a record breaking voyage, that took me around the world.  Gazing at the desert that connected two seas, I remembered my childhood dreams. Unfinished dreams, created out of boredom and curiosity. My dear parents had sailed these same waters, east towards the rising sun, to the lucky country, almost 40 years before me. My father dreamed a family that spent summers by the sea, my mother was seasick, unable to sleep. Now, here I was, re-tracing their wake, far beyond the horizons of Port Phillip Bay.

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Mum always said "if you are bored, you are boring," so I just keep dreaming... which is not easy with playstations, wii's and bla bla bla going all the time = please, find time to let your children dream.

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Did you know that if you look at your feet during a dream you can control your direction?

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Indigenous dreaming: Lizard medicine.

Lizard was tired and decided to rest in the shade of snakes rock. When snake returned she said "Surely you know I can eat you?" Lizard opened his eyes, "Yes indeed I do, but before I went to sleep I dreamed your belly was full."