Background information: I've been separated from my husband for just over a year. I have a friend that I share a very special relationship with (he is also still married with two young children), but our circumstances keep us apart. I'm just about ready to move out on my own and have a lot of mixed feelings about it.

In my dream I'm at an airport with my friend and he tells me he'll be back in a minute. He returns with his wife and kids and they take off in a plane together. I'm upset about this and I also get in a plane and take off. I start to gain elevation when suddenly I realize I don't know how to fly a plane. The plane starts to slowly drift downward. It lands very softly on the water and then I get out and walk across the water to a dock. I start to walk toward a house and I hear my friend calling my name. I try to hide from him -- and then I wake up.

—Dana, Age 37, Separated, WA, USA

Hi Dana—

The uncertainty of the future is appearing on the radar screen of your dreams!

Airplanes in dreams are metaphors for attempts to reach "big destinations" in our lives. Given the background you provide, we know you are hopeful that your friend, with whom you share "a very special relationship," will join you in a new romantic adventure. Unfortunately, problems arise as soon as you arrive at the airport. Your friend has brought his wife and children with him, and they leave in a separate plane -- without you!

As you pursue your friend in a plane of your own, you realize with a start that you do not know how to fly. Plane crashes in dreams symbolically represent fears that we will not "arrive" at goals, usually career or romantic, that we hope to achieve. A second clue that the flight you are on is symbolic occurs when your plane lands gently in a lake, and you walk magically across water to reach a dock. This is no ordinary journey!

As you prepare to separate from your husband, your dream reflects fears that your friend will remain with his family rather than join you in your new life. The lake that appears in your dream alerts us that you are "treading lightly" on an emotional "body of water." Will your friend share the journey with you? Will you wind up being together?

As the dream ends, you lover calls, but significantly you choose to hide -- rather than run to join him. What is the message of this turn in your dream? At a time when you have worked hard to make yourself available for this man, you still fear being rejected in the end.

Your dream reflects feelings of uncertainty as you "take flight" in a new direction. By showing potential obstacles on your path, your dream is encouraging you to be resourceful and self-reliant as you enter a period of transition. To achieve the destination you seek to reach, you may need to learn to "fly solo" first!