Dream Analysis: Sky Diving

I've been putting off this dream analysis for nearly a week now.  The memory of it was very clear, and the symbolism jumped out like crazy, but I just hadn't thought about it.  I kept meaning to.  Today, it just hit me in the face, and I knew.  Here's what I think my intuition was trying to tell me:

I was sky diving, and I'd already pulled my main chute.  It had just opened and filled, but I was falling too fast.  I was mere feet above the ground, about to crash.  It didn't feel scary.  I was simply aware, and evaluating how best to land, when R (my instructor who's been my biggest influence and advisor lately) suddenly tells me that I waited too late to pull my chute, and I'll have to go back up to a safe altitude and do it again.  So I kick my legs, and since I'm wearing flippers, I slow to a stop, and start going back up.  I keep kicking until I get to the ceiling of the warehouse (don't ask how I skydove from a plane and got through the ceiling.  it's a dream, remember?)  He's right up there with his scuba suit and flippers kicking with me, and says "there.  this is a safe altitude to pull from."  So I pull, and my chute comes out, but before it can even fill with air, I hit the ground and roll.  Apparently, that was NOT a safe altitude to pull from.

It may not fit all the details, but the main idea I get from this is that I have to trust my own instincts.  First of all, I have to stay aware, and pay attention, so that I don't wait too long to see danger and react.  I frequently get myself into trouble because life keeps moving, and I'm off in my own world.  I'm not aware of my surroundings, either because I'm obsessed with food and exercise, stuck in my head, or burried in some fantasy novel.  Either way, trouble (or the ground) begins to approach, I pass minimum safe altitude, and don't notice until I'm an impossibly short distance from disaster.  My instinct at this point is usually to blame myself, and shove the responsibility into the "able" hands of the nearest authority figure.  I seem to be surrounded by people who "know better" than I do.  And since I got myself into this mess, I lose faith in my ability to get myself out.  But I can't always rely on these outside sources.  I can listen and learn from them, but in an emergency, I've got to follow my instincts.  In the dream, I would not have had a good landing.  I pulled too late, and there was nothing I could do to change that fact.  You can't go back and change the past.  If you try to, you only lose sight of where you are right now.  If I had stayed in the moment, and focused on flaring my parachute at the right time, I would have had a hard landing, but it would have been a landing.  not a fall.  

this analysis fits better than I thought.  I like it.