the secret hat and a boat

I don’t usually remember my dreams, but I woke up on Saturday morning and have had a peculiar dream stuck in my head since then. It’s a little odd when one really sticks with me. The part I remember most vividly was swimming in very deep water that was warm and completely clear, I could see the sand at the bottom, 20 or 30 feet deep. This was towards the end of a dream in which I struggled to find my way to some secret place I really wanted to be.

This amazing and secret place was on the other side of the water. I have no idea why it was amazing, or why it was a secret. To get there, I had to find a certain top hat and trick my way past some suspicious and yet well mannered fellows who were trying to stop me. It seems that I was free to pass if I had the top hat. That wasn’t the only thing about the hat – it also showed me how to get where i wanted to be.

I have no idea how I knew to look for the hat but it was in a little house that was rather like a 3 story walkup that you would find in the city. I don’t remember a city but I remember the house. It was very white. Anyway – that was where the secret magic hat was. It wasn’t a talking hat or anything absurd like that – it’s just that no matter how I tried, I could not find this place without the hat. So down to the beach we went and into a little boat that took me across the water to some shimmery, grassy place.

The funny thing is I don’t remember where I was trying to get to or why. I remember landing on the shore and walking up a little hill towards some trees but I can’t tell you a single thing about why I was there. Then, somehow, I wasn’t there. I went back to the little house, chasing after the hat and made my way across the water again. There was some sort of contest down at the beach this time. Across the water I went. The entire dream was very peaceful and quiet with a sort of victorian seaside resort quality about it.

I made my way across the water again and there was something in the woods that I was searching for. I had no idea what but I knew I was looking for something. I wandered for a while and then came to some cliffs that overlooked the water. I was back on the other side again. It seemed to far to jump into the water so I walked a little way on the shore until I came to the spot that the hat had shown me and knew I had found it on my own that time. Instead of getting into a boat, I went for a swim. That was when my phone rang and spoiled the beautiful clear water and peaceful confusion of my dream.