Swimming against the Fish

I haven’t posted here in a while. Of all the places on social media, this is my favorite because it’s quiet here. It’s just me, writing. I guess I think that should mean something and not be mindless and silly, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Sometimes mindless and silly is good for the soul. Anyway, back to something a little more meaningful. I had a dream the other night while floating in and out of insomnia. I was swimming in the ocean with my son. It was somewhere warm and tropical, because the water was clear. We could see everything beneath us, vividly and totally clear. We were going somewhere, and swimming was the only to get where we were going. And as we were swimming, the fish were swimming in the opposite direction, all of them, swimming toward us and past us, up close and vivid. My son became frightened and stopped in the water. I wrapped my arm around his neck and hugged him against to my body. Then I continued on, swimming backwards with my son. At some point my son became my little brother, and I was holding him, although I was now, also, only a child. This has happened before, many times in fact. I have dreams where my children become someone else, someone I know, usually one of my siblings. I often wonder why this happens. Maybe the people in our lives are similar, or maybe the mind is trying to protect us in some way. I remember before my mother’s father died, my mother dreamt about my dad’s father dying. Dad told everyone about it. He thought it was very unusual, almost psychic, except that she got it wrong. I don’t think my mom got it wrong. I think the people in her dream changed in order to protect her.