the power of a mother

I had the strangest dream this morning.

I was taking a trip.  I was with another woman but the person is still not clear.  I think it was my mom at one point but not throughout the entire dream.  We had stopped at an airport cafe for a snack in between the second and third legs of our flight.  It was crowded.  I was holding one of two twin babies.  The other woman was holding the second baby but we were not standing together.

I saw a girl that I went to camp with when I was about 10 across the shop.  (Why she entered my subconscious is waaaayyyy beyond me.)  She was calling my name and it was taking me a while to place the face.  There was a lot going on around me.

All of the sudden I realized that the man squatting with his back towards me at my feet was trying to steal the baby from my arms.  I was having a hard time holding on to the baby.  It was not mine but I had to save it.  I tried to fight him off with my right arm but he clamped down on my hand with his teeth.  I tried to scream "HELP" multiple times but nothing was coming out of my mouth.  No one around me noticed what was going on.  The man turned back to look at me with this look of, "yeah, you're fucked" on his face when I screamed on the top of my lungs "HELP!" one more time.   But the difference was this time I did it out loud... and in real life.  I woke myself up as I was screaming.  Fortunately I didn't wake the kids but it startled the heck out of me.

I think that was the first time ever that has happened to me.  Like many people, I frequently dream that I'm trying to run but I can't get anywhere, trying to scream but nothing will come out.  But this time, the feeling of protecting that infant was so strong that I finally got the word out.  I have to say I was a little proud of myself.  And somehow... I managed to fall back to sleep.

Analyze that.