Transportation of Choice

I don't know the statistics regarding how often it's normal to have recurring dreams, nor if we really have recurring dreams at all--although I'm pretty sure it's not uncommon. But I'm no expert. When I am aware I'm dreaming, though, sometimes I have this feeling that I have had that certain dream before, or at least have seen recurring elements.

Last night's dream felt like one of those dreams. I don't remember exactly what it was about--I  know it changed a lot, but the story lines for my dreams are usually too kooky to have rational explanations. (For the record, I know I was meaning to head somewhere, and knew I had to get there fast.) The thing I do remember, however, is the fact that I was swimming in the air through most of one episode of the dream. The weirdest/coolest thing about it is that I realized (or convinced myself) that I have the habit of swimming in my dreams. Regularly.

In order to swim, I merely kick up into the air, and then start frog-paddling--I don't know the name of it--you know, moving my arms in an arch from out in front of me to the side, and then bringing them around again. I have to kick a lot to get somewhere and make sure I keep moving so I don't fall/float back to the ground when I don't want to. The normal feeling of being in water is there when I'm in the air, though I know that it's air and not water that I'm moving through. I never move any more quickly than I would be able to walk or run, and in my dreams I run very slowly. It's very much like what I think being in zero-gravity would be like, except that I have more control over where I am and what I'm doing.

I feel like I do this all the time in my dreams; or at least on a fairly regular basis. When I need to get somewhere, I choose to swim there rather than anything else.

In real life this could never happen, first reason being there's nothing in the air that would be able to keep me afloat or cause me to float. There's that buoyancy factor that is missing. (Which is annoying, considering that if I could actually swim through air, I would do it all the time. Not really sure why...) The second reason: in real life, I never made it past intermediate in swimming lessons. I was afraid of the deep end, and could never really jump off the diving board, let alone dive. When I do go "swimming"--which is seldom--I just keep myself afloat, doggie paddling or frog paddling to get where I need to be, if I don't just walk over there through the water (is "wade" the verb I'm looking for here?). I wonder if this desire to swim is some result of that.

Then again, I did have a dream the other night in which I ended up in a chapel located on a mountain that also doubled as a YA bookstore. So it could just be my imagination running away with the things I store in my memories. Or I could just be crazy.