As background, I am a single parent of a 15-year-old boy. Shortly after moving in with my current boyfriend (almost two years ago now), I dreamed that the three of us were walking around in the industrial area of our city, in and out of old warehouse-type buildings. We were up on the roof of one and decided to go through the building to get down to ground level. There was a stairwell that twisted all the way down. You could see the bottom from the top level. My boyfriend decided that he was going to jump each level instead of taking the stairs and proceeded to do so. My son thought this was wonderful and jumped as well.

Unfortunately, he missed the ledge and fell all the way to the bottom, landing on a pile of dried excess concrete. As he was falling, I was screaming. He was falling in such a manner that he looked like he was lying on his back and he was smiling at me as he fell. I awoke just as he landed. I was crying when I woke up and couldn't stop for almost an hour.

Even though it's been almost two years since I had the dream, it still frightens me and brings tears to my eyes. My son is the most important thing in my life and I cherish him more than words can ever express. I am a single parent of only one child.

I had another dream about my son at his current age of 15:

I am walking around the south end of my city (an affluent area) with my son. The next thing I know, we are inside of the Legislative Building (also in the south end of my city) and I am being chased throughout the halls by very large, dark horses. One has me cornered in a hallway and I am pounding on the door begging for my son to open the door and let me in. He says, "I'm changing!" (as in changing his clothes, I presume, because he's obviously at the age where he doesn't want his Mom to see him naked). I turn around to see this huge horse closing in on me and then I wake up.

I've actually got a few books on dream interpretation because I'm fascinated by the subject, and have read that dark horses are indicative of negativity. As a matter of fact, most of the dreams I've had (that I remember) seem to always be negative.

The predominant feeling I remember at the time (and currently) is my questioning whether or not it was a mistake for my son and me to move in with my boyfriend. I have made a point of not entering into relationships casually during my son's life ... not wanting "Uncle Joe's" or "Uncle Mike's" (or whatever) coming in and out of our lives. I wanted to provide a more stable life for my son. As you can see, I seem to be more concerned with my son's happiness than my own. I tend to be that way in all aspects of my life.

(I am the first to admit that I am an overprotective parent, and my son reminds me of that fact on a regular basis :-))

—Jacky, age 36, Saskatchewan, CANADA

Hi Jacky—

I agree that your first dream reflects concerns about moving in with your boyfriend, which, as you indicate, were weighing on your mind. In the dream you three are "moving in and out of buildings" together, an allusion to your housing dilemma, when suddenly you arrive on the roof of a building. Because the roof is an elevated position, and a location of perspective, the operation of your higher self is alluded to by the dream. (The roof may also be a reference to the "high" you were feeling at the start of your new relationship.)

Nevertheless, concerns about reaching the ground level, that is, grounding your relationship, already are on your mind, most likely due to consideration of how your son will fare in the new equation. Your boyfriend underestimates the work required to reach this ground level. He begins jumping between floors (skipping steps), and sure enough, the dream soon represents your deepest fears. Your son, naively following your boyfriend's lead, plummets to his death. It is significant that your boyfriend does not appear in the dream to rescue your son.

I am often asked if dreams are precognitive. The best answer I can give is that they frequently are, but only in the sense that they show us things that we already know at a subconscious level. Your dream report indicates that the early doubts which you held for this relationship still linger. And who could say that you haven't known these doubts all along?

Your second dream, though equally frightening, actually employs a fairly comic device of dream communication. In the halls of the legislature building -- an allusion to structure and stability -- a wild horse is loose and bearing down upon you. You press repeatedly upon a door calling for your son to let you in, but he merely replies "I'm changing," and the door remains shut. You presume your son is changing clothes, but a more literal interpretation of his words might yield a truer interpretation of their meaning. Your son, indeed, is changing -- both physically and mentally. Might I suggest that the dark horse represents the heated engine of adolescence, and that the closed door signifies the end of one era -- his boyhood -- and the beginning of another -- his young manhood?

In another e-mail you wrote to me that you have raised your son from birth as a single parent, and that you have a very close relationship, of which you are very proud. Your son is a fortunate child. Your love will forever be reflected in his life.