Cuppa Terrific

Tiny Heroes, Giant Fears

• Sheree • Season 1 • Episode 6

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A hiss in the garden, mulch bombs flying, and a crow with an anklet named Owl the Second—this story starts small and gets huge fast. We shrink to blade-of-grass size, wrestle with scale and fear, and watch a jumping spider named Fluffy outthink a giant scorpion. Then the ground collapses into a wormhole and the scene cuts at the last second, leaving a delicious cliffhanger that sets up a sequel dream.

We walk through the dream like a story you can step into—tiny hands lifting beach-ball tomatoes, a helpful crow taking us skyward, and a quick spider turning panic into protection. From there, we decode the symbols with care: tomatoes as domestic joy and health, scorpions as threats to prosperity, crows as omens that can still become allies, spiders as both fear and defense depending on your stance. Along the way we highlight the real superpower here: lucid dreaming. Becoming aware in the dream lets you rewrite the mood, add allies, or disarm a monster with a single, playful twist. Give the spider high heels, put the villain on roller skates, or name your protector and watch the fear soften.

We also sit with empathy. Maybe the scorpion wasn’t evil—maybe it was guarding its own tomatoes. That question changes everything, because choosing perspective is part of the lucid toolkit. The conversation shows how to remember details, name what matters, and practice tiny edits that build confidence and calm, both asleep and awake. If dreams are stories, you’re the writer.

Loved this adventure into lucid dreaming and symbolism? Follow, share with a friend who fights nightmares, and leave a review to tell us the wildest change you’ve ever made mid-dream.

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Until next time, may all your cups overflow.

Sheree:

Hello, folks, and welcome to another episode of Cup of Terrific. I'm your host today, Shri, and today I'd like to welcome my very special co-host.

William:

It's her daughter, a son.

Sheree:

My son William. And we're going to discuss his dream, which will be pretty cool, I think. Is it cool? Is it scary? So is it actually a nightmare or is it a dream or a nightmare?

William:

Nightmare.

Sheree:

Okay, great. So we'll delve into that here shortly. But before we do, before we do, I always like to tell everybody, what are we drinking today? We what are you drinking? We're drinking grape juice. You're drinking grape juice. Yes. And please tell me, how's your grape juice? It's good. Yeah. Is have you ever had it before?

William:

No.

Sheree:

No? Would you want to drink it again? Definitely. Definitely? So I should definitely put that in the mom bank upstairs that I need to get. Okay. Alright. I will put that in the mom bank upstairs that I need to buy the grape juice again because the William likes the grape juice.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

Alright. I'm drinking my go-to orange tangerine Mio because it's a good standby.

William:

I like grape.

Sheree:

You like grape?

William:

Yes. Anything purple.

Sheree:

Anything purple? That's true. Because purple's your favorite color, right? Just like me. Yes. How about that? I wonder what's up with that. Alright, William. So you were telling me a little while back ago that you had a really interesting dream.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

And I was pretty blown away. If you want, I could go through and ask you some questions about it. Or if you like, what I generally like to do is I like to tell the listeners a story about my dream. So I just tell them the dream as if they're having the dream. Like it's a story, like it's a storybook. So they get to kind of experience it as if they're having the dream. And then afterwards, I get to look up what those different parts of the dream might mean.

William:

Okay.

Sheree:

And we can talk through those together and maybe figure out if there's any cool things about the dream if you want.

William:

Oh, yeah.

Sheree:

Alright, I'll ask questions and kind of help you through. Alright, let's set the scene. So you laid down that night and you finally fell asleep. And you started to drift off into dreamland. Hold on, let me silence my phone. Because otherwise, this is gonna distract us the whole time. And that's no good. Oi. Okay. Let's start over. Okay. Okay, so you finally start falling asleep, and you're drifting off into dreamland, and you start to come to, and the scene starts to come into focus. Tell me about the setting you're in.

William:

Uh inside a ramshackle shackle. And and it made of made of Twindle and we go outside, you and me. And we we start picking huge tomatoes. We're tiny. They were just cherry tomatoes. Little did we know. They were huge normal tomatoes, way overhead. So we go and we pick the cherry tomatoes.

Sheree:

But we're like tiny.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

And the cherry tomatoes are big.

William:

As big as mulch.

Sheree:

So we're like as big as mulch?

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

Okay, so we're like little people, so we're like smaller. But the cherry tomatoes are like normal size cherry tomatoes.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

So they seem to be pretty big to us. So they're like us holding a big giant like beach ball.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

Wow. That would be cool. Okay, so we're helping each other try to carry cherry tomatoes.

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

Cool.

William:

And out of the quarter of my corner of my eye, I see this this pincer like thing. I don't notice it. I noticed it, but I was too busy picking up cherry tomatoes. You found a ripe one. And it looked pink red. So and after that, then we hear a hiss. And we look behind us. There's a gigantic scorpion. But you had a plan for this. Um, we're running. The scorpion's pinching us, trying to. It picks up mulch and is throwing it like bombs. Oh my gosh. And after that, you go to the you go to a giant crow and he has a collar on named Al the Second.

Sheree:

Oh, really? Wow, you he had a name. That's cool.

William:

And wow we get on Al the Second.

Sheree:

Okay.

William:

And the scorpion uh pinches and tries to sting Al the second.

Sheree:

Oh my gosh.

William:

But luckily, where right where when we were flying, the scorpion stinged Al the Second's ankle anklet. Basically, he doesn't have a collar. He has his anklet tells his name.

Sheree:

Oh, okay. She's got like a brace and anklet, so it's like a little silver thing on his face. Yeah.

William:

Okay. So and we're flying. The scorpion, we can see it fly trying to catch up from below.

Sheree:

Wow, so he's still chasing us.

William:

Yeah, he's a smart scorpion. Oh my god. And then there is another, and when the crow when Al II can't fly no more because he's too tired, we hop off and take ride on and we don't take ride. We're sitting behind blades of grass.

Sheree:

Okay.

William:

And then, out of nowhere, a giant spider comes along. Okay.

Sheree:

Where did the scorpion go? Or you don't know.

William:

And the spider and the scorpion started sparring.

Sheree:

Oh. So we're hiding.

William:

Yeah, we're hiding. Okay. They start sparring, and we are basically trying to tiptoe away.

Sheree:

Okay.

William:

They're having their battles. The spider is quick, small, and agile.

Sheree:

Okay.

William:

Like about our size. Gotcha.

Sheree:

So he so he's a little small guy.

William:

Yeah, he's a jumping spider.

Sheree:

Oh, gotcha. Okay. And then we've got this big s scorpion that's like big tough guy. Yeah. Okay.

William:

And the big the big tough scorpion, as you would like to call him, um, he tries to he tries to grab the spider and bring him up to sting him. The spider, instead of getting grabbed, jumps up and as he's jumping, bites his stinger so it's numb, so he can't move it. And then just goes down and starts just karate chopping him.

Sheree:

With his big legs, with his many legs.

William:

So he's just on the back.

Sheree:

And he's kicking him with lots of things.

William:

And after that, we name him. And after the scorpion starts to run away, we name the spider Fluffy.

Sheree:

Oh, so the spider's a nice guy? Yeah. Oh. Spider is So the Spider kicks the scorpion's butt. Yeah. Oh, did the scorpion run away?

William:

The scorpion started crying and running.

Sheree:

Oh, he ran away. Yeah. Oh. So what is what is that the end of the dream?

William:

No. Oh. Apparently we were standing on a wormhole.

Sheree:

A wormhole?

William:

And it was been covered up by sand and stuff. Oh. And it caves in. Oh. We fall in. Okay. And we can't wiggle our way out. Oh no. We're stuck there. A mole comes and it tries to eat us and it just blanks there.

Sheree:

Okay, that's where you f you Oh, okay, that's where you wake up. Okay, geez.

William:

Not joking, it just blanks there. Wow, okay. Well. If there was two seconds more, we would have been either fighting for our lives or in the belly.

Sheree:

So did you have what overall did you think it was what kind of dream do you think this was?

William:

A dream that I could control stuff because I was thinking in my mind s something would come and save us.

Sheree:

Do you know what that's called?

William:

Uh no. I don't, but there was a video I watched that told me about dreams, but I forgot.

Sheree:

Oh, really? I'm pretty sure that that's called lucid dreaming.

William:

Yes. Oh, now it's coming.

Sheree:

Oh, yeah? So you watched something about this? Yes.

William:

Normal dreams, happy dreams, are basically you can't control anything, just happy ending. They just happy nothing bad happens.

Sheree:

Yeah, it's just like you're dreaming.

William:

Nightmare. Something bad happens. It doesn't recover.

Sheree:

Yeah, you're just scared.

William:

Yeah. Lucid dreams, you could give yourself superpowers. You could make the make the thing you're fighting or thing that's happening really just not scary. Like if you're fighting a giant scorpion, just give no, if you're fighting a giant spider, give it give it high heels. The spider just falls falls over.

Sheree:

Yeah, you know what that reminds me of? Is like uh that one that one thing from Harry Potter. Yeah. It reminds me of that cabinet in Harry Potter. Yeah. Where they let out the the one monster that like turns into whatever your like biggest fear is. Nobody knows what that creature looks like.

William:

Actually, it looks like the um mist, apparently.

Sheree:

All right. Now we're back and we're gonna talk about the elements that we had in this dream, or that we've identified in the dream. So what what elements did we kind of pick out together?

William:

Uh spider.

Sheree:

Yes. The spider, thank you. Mega mind.

William:

And the um crow. Okay, yep, the crow. And the scorpion and tomatoes.

Sheree:

And tomatoes, yep. Yeah, and the scorpion. Yep, and the scorpion, yep. Okay, so those are the ones we'll go over. Um, let's go over the ones in order as we saw them. That's probably the best way to go about it.

William:

Okay, then scorpion.

Sheree:

I think the first one we see is the tomato, actually. Yeah. So what did we figure out that the tomato would signal?

William:

Uh to it uh good health. Mm-hmm. And I will enjoy. I will have enjoyment and happiness.

Sheree:

Yeah, it denotes domestic enjoyment and happiness. So, like, you know, having a personal garden. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So and that's what we have. We have a nice garden in the backyard where we enjoy those things.

William:

It is very healthy food. We have bell peppers. As we just ate.

Sheree:

As we just ate, yep, we sure did. And okay, so we did the tomato. What was the next element that we picked out?

William:

Uh scorpion.

Sheree:

Yeah, what did this let's look, let's see. What did we figure out? Where was it? There it does, yep.

William:

What did we figure out that the scorpion false friends will intake will take advantage of opportunities to deter undermine your prosperity?

Sheree:

So we're happy in the garden, enjoying our domestic happiness and prosperity, and other people may try to capitalize on that and take it away from us.

William:

And get a weed whacker out.

Sheree:

So we try to run away, and what's the next element that we come upon?

William:

A crow.

Sheree:

A crow. And what does a crow typically tend to denote?

William:

Misfortune and grief.

Sheree:

Yeah, tent usually it means that, but it doesn't always. Sometimes today it was very helpful. It was because he he represented an opportunity to get us up off the ground and away from what was attacking us. Yes. Right. So maybe he was more misfortune for himself because he got stung. He almost got stung. Oh, he almost got saved. But but we were okay. We were able to get away and be safe.

William:

Al the second had had the best.

Sheree:

Yeah. Then the spider. And then the spider. So we ran away and we hid in the grass, and you started lucid dreaming, and you found a way to find a spider. And instead of the scorpion conquering you and taking away your prosperity and defeating you, spiders showed up, and a lot of times, if you see a spider that you're running from in your dream, a large spider that's chasing you, it can denote that you will lose fortune. But we're gonna use an inverse logic here, and we're gonna say that we were hiding from the scorpion, and a small spider stepped in and was actually protecting us. So he was a symbol of protecting our fortune.

William:

Yes, so it was very helpful out of Fluffy.

Sheree:

Yeah, so Fluffy helped you.

William:

Yeah, he helped both of us.

Sheree:

Right. So in your dream, you lucid dream, you were you created something that was powerful enough to overcome what was terrifying you, and you you set things you set things straight.

William:

Yeah. And also it was very after since we went over the story without the tiny little details, uh, since the like the things in the corner of my eye. I only said the corner in my eye of my eye once. But there were many things I saw at the corner of my eye.

Sheree:

Like what?

William:

Uh like in one part of the story you will see a giant person. I'm not gonna reveal who the person is until the end. Until the end.

Sheree:

Okay.

William:

So and many very small things that uh that kind of played a part. So at the end, I'm gonna tell this stuff.

Sheree:

But right now, we basically well, we're pretty much at the end. Oh, because we just went through we went through the story. You told the story of your dream, and then we went through the analysis of you telling us how you were having a nightmare. You explained what it was like to go from having a nightmare to using your powerful ability to lucid dream, and and you were able to affect it in a way that you were able to have a positive impact on that. Which that man, that that a lot of people they really wish they could do. So that's great, bud. I hope, I hope that you continue to talk about things like that so that you can remember your dreams and talk about them.

William:

Yeah, I wish to be in this way more times than just today.

Sheree:

Mm-hmm. That way, if it's like uh it's like an exercise, you know, the more you do it, just like when you play your sports, the better you get at it. Yes, and and you you won't suffer, you know, if you have a difficult time sleeping, you're able to kind of, you know. Lucid dream. Work through it, yeah, exactly. That's pretty cool.

William:

Yeah. And so what was so if you don't mind actually oh go go ahead. What quick thoughts do you have, William? Quick thoughts. Um Was the tr scorpion trying to run from something and found food? Us? Was this was the scorpion what did we steal the scorpion's tomatoes that it was growing?

Sheree:

Oh, I love that you have this feeling of empathy for the other thing in your dream.

William:

Did the was the scorpion just trying to play with us?

Sheree:

And and you were just overwhelmed with your own fear you couldn't see from his perspective?

William:

Yeah, okay. And was the spider the actual bad guy?

Sheree:

We'll never know. Actually, the only person who can know is you because it was your dream.

William:

Honestly. So you get to make that decision. I thought I think the spider would be the actual bad guy.

Sheree:

You get to make that decision. So you wrote the story, so you can make that decision. Yeah. But you could write the book both ways.

William:

Actually, my mind made the story.

Sheree:

That's true. Your mind did make the story.

William:

My mind is a famous writer writing known for writing silly stories. Isn't that great?

Sheree:

I love that we all get to be a writer by the dreams that we have. Yes. I love that.

William:

Many times.

Sheree:

I love that. I love listening to other people's dreams because they get to be a writer.

William:

Lucid I have done lucid dreams many times.

Sheree:

Yeah. That's really cool. I know a lot of people tell me that they wish that they had that ability.

William:

Sometimes uh I dream about a terrible thing that could never be stopped.

Sheree:

Yeah.

William:

But I think through it and basically just if there are put roller skates on it. If it's never orange roller skates. Yeah. Um then like if you see a giant spider that's terrorizing Earth that already conquered six continents, then just get and you just sweat and put a drop of water on it and just just and die.

Sheree:

Just straight right and then we can all just start living on him.

William:

Yeah. He's the world spider.

Sheree:

It's a world spider.

William:

We're gonna have good steak tonight.

Sheree:

Spider steak.

William:

I actually I've I want I want I've heard people that say it tastes it says they say it tastes like bacon.

Sheree:

Oh, okay. So same with ants. I wonder if we could I wonder if we could make some really interesting clothes out of the spider silk.

William:

Well we can't we can't just extract it's all based off of our imagination. Extract it. We just we have to get spider to open the valve.

Sheree:

Or even better, what if their spider silk could be used to make some kind of spaceships? That would be so great.

William:

Metal spider. Just like a metal mage. Yeah.

Sheree:

Well, William, I'm dying to know what was the giant thing that you saw out of the corner of your eye? This is the end of the podcast. Please tell us. Um, basically. Okay, so in your head, um, think was it the giant spider?

William:

No. Sorry that you're teasing me. No. So in your head, basically think of a gigantic you're you're as small as a blade of grass. Yes. Think of a dad riding a horse. Okay. And the horse is tiny, but dad is like riding the horse like a battery. That's that's what I saw.

Sheree:

That's that's fantastic.

William:

It's it's that's it's like a calf horse.

Sheree:

And you know what? That's that's a perfect example of why some things in our dreams don't make any sense at all.

William:

Yes, and he had a dream and he had a two-too.

Sheree:

And not not everything in our dreams has to make sense. It's a dream in the dream world, anything could happen. Like, like we were just saying.

William:

You could it it start starts out you fight you're fighting a very, very you're fighting a robot, and at the end the robot starts wearing tutus and is a ballerina's nicest to everyone. Yeah. Yeah, it could be. It's a dominating robot, and it's conquered all the seven continents and starts playing ballet.

Sheree:

Yeah. Yeah, it could be all kinds of things. It doesn't have to be logical at all.

William:

Yeah. So there's the giant thing, and now the tiny thing.

Sheree:

Who's the tiny thing?

William:

Okay, so I didn't want to tell you this because it would might freak you out without a second, but there was an ant on him that was like taking a feather off of him and giving it to me. I don't know why. But at the end, apparently I used it to like I don't want to tell you any spoilers of of the sequel dream that I have frequently. Frequently.

Sheree:

Oh, you have a recurring dream, huh?

William:

No, not recurring. Like two dreams, if they end off with a cliffhanger or something, then there will be a second dream based on that topic. And basically it's just scenes just flashing in my head, like pictures of the other dream. Uh-huh. That happens to me too, yeah. And then after that, it's like a differ where like the giant. A giant a giant mole trying to eat us, apparently.

Sheree:

But somehow we're escaping.

William:

And I did have it uh actually last night. The dream.

Sheree:

Well, we'll save that for another episode, and that'll be an element for another episode, okay?

William:

Yes.

Sheree:

I love it.

William:

And there was an ant that I got the feather, held on to it until the end. I'm not gonna tell you what.

Sheree:

Okay, well, we'll like like you said, we'll save it for another episode.

William:

But and also the other thing I saw out of the corner of my eye, like literally, if we were staring straight and it was like there and gone.

Sheree:

What?

William:

Obi. Oh, the puppy. He stole one of our tomatoes.

Sheree:

And uh sounds about right. Yeah, yeah.

William:

Darn pup.

Sheree:

Well, thank you again, William, for joining me today on my podcast and sharing your dream with me and walking through um my encyclopedia of dreams and talking through what some of the symbols might mean. Um, and I love that you explain to the listeners what the difference between dreams and nightmares are, and also what it means to be a lucid dreamer. And I look forward to.

William:

I will try to my best to make my own podcast about lucid dreams and stuff. Oh, that'll be cool. Entire things of dreams and lucid dreams and different ways it'll work.

Sheree:

Yeah, well, I things. Like I said, I'm glad that you are a lucid dreamer and that you shared your lucid dream with me, and that hopefully you'll come back and you'll talk to me about others in the future, bud.

William:

Yeah. And talk to you about the sequel.

Sheree:

Yep. And you know, thanks for being my kid.

William:

Yes, yes, so goodbye for now.

Sheree:

Goodbye for now.

William:

I will be back. This is not the end you've heard of me.

Sheree:

Goodbye. All right, that's the end of today's episode of Cuppa Terrific. Thank you again for joining me on another fantastic episode. That was uh quite an adventure with a really interesting kid. Um, I know I'm a little bit biased, but he is constantly surprising me with things. Um, and uh you can follow me on uh Facebook, Instagram, or on X, and feel free to drop me a line at Kappa Terrific, which is spelled c u p-pa.torrific t-e-r-r-i-f I c at gmail.com. Please feel free to give me your feedback on this episode or if you have any experiences on lucid dreaming or thoughts on this episode, I'd sure love to hear from you. Otherwise, guys, may all your cups overflows.

Head Shot

Sheree

Host
Contributor

William

Guest