I had a dream a couple of days ago that has been bothering me a bit, and I wanted to ask for other people’s perspectives; especially from anyone who has had dreams where imagery, symbolism, or “in-between” spaces seemed important. Allow me to explain:

I had a weird dream where i was at my grandmother's local community pool in Maple Shade, NJ. (It's the pool in the cluster of lexton area specifically. Her old 1st floor condo is still the first picture that comes up when searching that area on google, with the white chair outside of it)

Anyways, in the dream, I was at the pool alone. The sky was clear & sunny, and the water looked great. So I jumped in & relaxed in the water for a bit. Until suddenly.... my mother (who has been deceased for 9 years) suddenly swims up to me, catching me completely by surprise as I thought I was alone. We were talking for a bit (dont remember what we discussed, as is the norm for 80% of dreams involving deceased relatives), spending time at the pool like we used to when I was a child until she kept diving under the water. She would dive under & then stay in place, just watching me, and at a certain point I understood that she was prompting me to go under the water with her & look back at her under there. It was like she wanted me to see her beneath the surface, not just above it. At first it was hard because i couldnt see under the water as water would get in my eyes & more jarringly, I couldn't hold my breath for long at all. Like, shorter than i can normally hold my breath. I remember repeatedly trying until it got to the point I could begin to see under the water better. And when i say better it was like I was wearing goggles, as it looked crystal clear under the water by the last time I tried. It's just that i couldn't hold my breath for long at all. And so the last attempt resulted in me (quite literally) waking up gasping for air as if I had been holding my breath. I was (surprisingly) able to go right back to sleep though after this, and didn't think much of it at all until I woke up later.

I know the obvious interpretation is “look deeper into your subconscious” or “process something deep inside of you,” and I’m open to that, but I’m also wondering about other possibilities. The dream felt almost liminal; like the pool was not just a pool, but a kind of boundary or symbol. Water often feels symbolic to me: emotional, spiritual, hidden, dreamlike, and connected to things beneath ordinary awareness. It was more than simply just “my mom appeared to me in a dream" sort of scenario for me. Because I had other dreams where she appeared. But this time around, it felt more subliminal, since it involved a pool as well as this repeated invitation to look at her beneath the surface.

I'm not saying I 100% believe this but I have heard that in dreams, water serve as a sort of threshold or place in-between the world of the dead & the living. That spiritually or mystically speaking, water is often the boundary between realms. And so a part of me is wondering if me going under the water served as some sort of way to thin the veil between the two worlds? Don't get me wrong, I don’t believe that I was communicating with the "other side" by any means, but am open to the possibility of that considering the timing of this dream. As I've been battling a lot of inner struggles lately. I'm more inclined to believe it's a self-reflection allegory rather than a literal crossing over of the threshold between life & death.

I’m curious how you all would interpret this dream though. Could the underwater element symbolize contact with something hidden? Or maybe a message from my subconscious? I think it's also worth noting that I had two completely unrelated dreams simultaneously before & after this dream (where I can recall some conversations had in those dreams word for word)

Also, have any of you had dreams involving deceased loved ones where the setting or symbols felt unusually important - especially water, mirrors, doors, windows, pools, oceans, beaches, or other “between places” as some would put it? Did it feel like just a dream, or did it feel like something more symbolic was happening? Or even feel more real than an average dream?

Oh, and the attached photo is the pool in question where my dream took place.

Dreams of deceased family & water?