Helplessness

I was startled out of bed this morning by a nightmare.

I was taking an English exam in a school classroom. I was seated and felt confident in taking the paper.

But at the last moment before the exam started, someone told me that I was in the wrong seat.

I got up, and ran. Up and down stairs, across corridors, trying to match the seat number listed on my candidate slip to the list of numbers that hung outside every classroom door.

I was panting, and panicking as I watched the clock run down towards to end of the paper.

I ran and ran, increasing in despair as the clock ticked. I still couldn't find my seat!

I finally ran into this teacher along a corridor, she directed me into the classroom where my seat was.

I finally found my seat, sat down, and started writing. Thats when I woke up.

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The emotion that first came over me was one of helplessness. That all the running around was leading me no closer to my destination. That as hard as I tried, I could not find what I was looking for.

Until.

I ran into that teacher. And she led me out of my loop.

That got me thinking about how sometimes, we all need that hand from the outside to pull us out of our loops, our helplessness. And that we sometimes just don't have enough in ourselves to help ourselves.