I can't work this one out. Any thoughts welcome.

I was with someone I knew (possibly a family member, such as my mother in law, but it's not clear and they were only present in a "token" way), and we were in a house by an ocean bay. For some reason, there was a line of furniture in the bay, standing in the water. One of the pieces of furniture was an antique writing desk we own, which once belonged to my husband's grandfather and then to his father. As I was watching, I saw the waves getting bigger and bigger, I suppose it was a storm (don't recall any other stormy signs, though, just the high winds and big waves). Soon, the waves were crashing over the desk, which was standing open (it's got a drop-down front), and that worried me, because the waves were so high, so I left the house to go wade out into the water, intending to shut the desk. Woke up just as I was going into the water.

Some background on the symbols: the desk has no personal or sentimental meaning to me, other than being a quite nice piece of early 20th century furniture which I appreciate, and it's where we keep some of our significant papers (birth certificates, marriage certificate, lease, etc etc). The desk stands in my office, about two metres from my computer desk, so I see it out of the corner of my eye all the time. The only time we open it is to get out or put in some paperwork or other. The drop-down front has a lock and key, but the lock has been broken for who knows how long, and we wouldn't keep it locked even if it did work (no need, really).

The symbol of the ocean seems to have dream meaning in the form of "transition" or "change" or something along those lines. Possibly, it's a combination of water (rebirth) and travel (journey, passage, etc). In waking life, while I appreciate a good ocean view, I never swim in the ocean and generally won't go in the water any deeper than about my knees, because I just plain do not like swimming in the sea (and Australian sea water is full of poisonous and biting things, or at least, that's my excuse ).

I suspect that the "open desk" symbolises something to do with being concerned that the big waves would cause the papers inside to be lost, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why the hell the desk - and a bunch of other furniture which wasn't mine - would be standing in the bay!

Any insights, thoughts, etc. welcome. I'm usually reasonably good at dream interpretation, but this has me stumped!