When I began keeping a dream journal, I noticed that I had quite a few dreams in which the color turquoise featured predominantly. Then the turquoise dreams stopped abruptly, to be replaced by shades of red. It's wasn't until a couple of dreams attached the color to a literal label that the truth dawned on me. The reddish hues appeared as the color of a car. I finally realized that the shift in color had occurred around the time I sold my turquoise Mustang and bought a new burgundy Honda. Some of the colors appeared on earthbound vehicles. But in some dreams, I was airborne. Did my dreams substitute a turquoise car for a turquoise plane? If so, perhaps, as an automobile passenger, I could take advantage of the link. I could pretend I was soaring into the sky while the car was "flying" down the road. Or stuck in traffic. A few times the sensation of movement and the motion blur of passing scenery were incorporated into flying dreams.

While some dreams repeated the connection between color and car travel, not all did. My Honda was a dark red. There had to be a different explanation when the dreamtime red was a lighter or brighter hue. One day, in addition to the sub-feature of color, I detected other Consistent Clues in association with a flying dream.

Hide and Seek in the Sky (Label + Color + Shape + Motion) A small airplane, high-winged, like a Cessna, takes off flying. I follow, keeping pace. Then I see a new, modern red two-seater up ahead. Above the tops of eucalyptus trees, I fly to investigate. The plane I leave behind is disappointed and thinks I'm impressed by this newer, flashier model. I soar on the right side of the red plane, then over and above it towards the left, and back again to the right. The plane is surprised. I wave and smile, flying on ahead. I bank to the right, showing that I fly just like an airplane. "Red" follows me because it is fascinated that I can fly without a vehicle to surround me. I dip down towards a field, then try to rise to clear the trees at the far end. Line or wires appear horizontally across the sky. I think, "Oh, no!" I've got to get over them, beyond them, and fly free. With an effort, I rise above tree-top level past the wires and on towards the blue sky. I am now flying above hill level. Sensing that "Red" is on my tail. I try to evade it.  The countryside below is dry grass and two-lane roads. Off to the left, atop a hill, is a tower. It is a brick or stone cylinder with a tong-like structure on top. I bank to the left and fly towards it. The plane flies around it to the right as I fly left. Passing the cylinder, I do a quick downward spiral in order to place the cylinder between me and the plane. Behind the top of the cylinder I float, moving to keep myself hidden from the plane as it changes position. The plane asks, 'Where is she?' and loops to the right to head back my way. I descend down the side of the cylinder, then feeling I've gone too low, levitate back up. When the plane is back on course, I fly up behind it, approaching from below and rising above. I feel pleased because I'm in a better position to see it.

The twisting, turning "plane" in my dream was acting like a person! That intrigued me. In addition to recording the dream text, I did a quick sketch of the "tong-like structure." Then I went looking through the house for that form. The actual eucalyptus trees behind the house drew my search outside. There was most certainly a "cylinder" in the back yard, although it was made of plastic and metal. It was the above-ground swimming pool. At the top of it were the railings of the step ladder that allowed people to climb in and out of the pool. The upper board, or landing, of the ladder plus its railings were the "tong" shape of my dream.Due to the hot weather, my children and I had spent quite a bit of time in the pool the day before. We were splashing water, diving underneath the surface and playing "chase" games with a blue ball and each other, in and out of the pool. My daughter Teresa was wearing a bright red swimsuit. She was the red plane in my dream.

The Clues to discovery were the shape of the pool and ladder, the motion of running and diving, the correct label of the trees and the brightest color in the scene. Just like Teresa's swimsuit, that plane was really red!

Swimming had provided a truly buoyant sensation of flight for my dream. Thereafter, I often went swimming with the intent that my body remember that feeling when I fell asleep. I managed to incubate quite a few flying dreams that way.