Man, lemme tell ya, this whole thing about “seeing the helicopter,” it ain’t just some random flick of the brain anymore. It started out like that, sure, just another one of those weird dreams that hit you when you’re completely out, you know? But then it started comin’ back, over and over again, and that’s when it stopped bein’ just a dream and started feelin’ like some kind of, well, a dream spirit now, I guess.
It usually starts the same way. I’m down on the ground, sometimes in a field, sometimes in a city street, feels like I’m stuck, just lookin’ up. And then I hear it, this faint thrumming sound, kinda low at first, then it gets louder and louder. I’m squinitng, tryin’ to see, and then boom, there it is. A helicopter. Not always the same one, sometimes it’s like a big military thing, other times it’s one of those sleek, fancy ones, but it’s always hoverin’, just chillin’ up there, lookin’ down. I can feel the wind from the blades, even in the dream, blowin’ my hair around, if I got hair in the dream, that is. It never lands, never comes closer, just stays up there, giving me this bird’s-eye view, or rather, showin’ me its view.
I swear, for months, it was just annoyin’. Like, why this specific thing? Why a helicopter? I tried to shake it off, tried to think about other stuff before bed, even tried listenin’ to podcasts to clear my head, but nope. Every few nights, sometimes back-to-back, there it was again. The sound, the wind, the chopper just hangin’ there. And here’s the kicker, every time, I’d wake up feelin’ super weird. Not tired, not refreshed, just… observant. Like I’d just spent hours watchin’ stuff from way up high.
This whole “dream spirit now” thing, it really clicked for me when I was in a real rough spot a while back. My old man, he got into a real nasty accident, not life-threatening, thank God, but it messed up his leg pretty bad. So, I had to drop everything, just kinda pack a bag and head home to help out. My job, which I usually loved, suddenly felt like a million miles away, and when I tried to do stuff remotely, it was just a mess. I was juggling his doctors’ appointments, trying to figure out insurance paperwork, cookin’ meals, and still tryna get my own work done. I felt like I was buried under a pile of crap, completely overwhelmed, just spinnin’ my wheels on the ground, you know?
I remember one night, I’d just spent hours on the phone with some insurance company, goin’ back and forth, hitting brick wall after brick wall. I was so mad, so frustrated, I felt like I was gonna explode. That night, guess what? The helicopter dream. Only this time, it was different. Instead of just seeing it, I kinda felt like I was in it. Still lookin’ down, but from inside. And it wasn’t about the specific details on the ground anymore. It was about seeing the whole picture. All the little cars, the tiny houses, the winding roads that looked like string. From up there, none of the specific problems looked as big or as impossible as they did when I was down in the thick of it.
That’s when it hit me. This ain’t just some random dream. This is my brain, or whatever’s messin’ with my brain when I’m sleepin’, tellin’ me to take a step back. To stop lookin’ at every damn tree and see the whole forest. It was like this dream spirit, this persistent helicopter, was nudging me, like, “Hey dumbass, gain some altitude.”
Ever since then, when I’m feelin’ stuck, when I’m overwhelmed by all the little details, I think about that helicopter. I try to mentally “zoom out.” Instead of getting all tangled up in every single email or every single frustrating phone call, I try to step back and look at the bigger problem. What’s the main goal here? What’s the overall picture? It helps me see the connections, helps me prioritize, helps me not get lost in the weeds. It’s kinda become my personal mental reset button. Still kinda weird to talk about, but hey, it works for me now. It’s just my way of seein’ things from a higher perspective, thanks to some persistent dream spirit in the form of a damn helicopter.
