Imagine

 

March 15, 2021

 

Greetings from the magic,

 I have a friend who has a son, a bright, curious four-year-old, full of questions and not yet cloaked in whatever keeps people from saying what they imagine.  When I hear what he says, what he thinks of, he allows me to time travel a bit, my docent to the past where my own children were such an age. 

 My children’s imagination is what filled my mind last night, and as I woke this morning.  Beautiful and colorful, original, and filled with enthusiasm.  How they created their play, how they whiled away hours just crawling around, how they filled in first conversations with the images from dreams, or from what a mote of dust inspired.  Sometimes as we walked along, they would tell stories, disjointed and unlikely, bizarre sometimes, all fueled by whatever sparked the imagination in those precious minds.

 It is a gift of childhood, the access to our imagination, when it is natural to express it as we develop.  When it is allowed, encouraged, explored.  It fuels our learning in many ways, and the adults who care for us help us plumb those depths as we choose our way into growing up.

 Ah, but then there comes a time when it feels like more of a distraction than a gift.  When we must put away daydreaming and fantasy and creating from nothing, and take on the mantle of responsible thinking, leaning on the other places our mind is developing practical things that will serve us.   It is an unusual moment when, as adults, someone says; “Use your imagination.”

 I am blessed with an active and vivid imagination.  I can’t say how this was given to me, perhaps comics or creative siblings or reading books, or maybe it was planted in me generations ago.  There was a time when I would draw things, hoping that somehow the images in my head would be transformed by my hands into what I wanted others to see.  But, like the music I tried, it was not a natural expression of my imagination. 

 I imagined many things, and some became creations, and some became my future.  What I imagined became possible, and often became reality. I will also admit that the same imagination, the probably limitless possibilities, also brought fear and anxiety.  Sometimes the darkness I imagined colored my choices.  So, a powerful imagination is not all fairies and rainbows.

 The other thing that is probably true is that my memory of life lived so far has a little of the magic of imagination as well.  I try to remember clearly, to recount truthfully, but people who know me are likely to forgive me if my imagination embellishes history.  So.

 But for most of my life my imagination has served me well.  It has evolved from a place of fantasy, or a cauldron of idle daydreams, into a skill of sorts.  I imagine, see the images, feel the magic of what is possible, and then turn it into words that express the idea.  There are other ways I share those images, including how I interact with people, or lead others, or see choices unfold. 

 I thought of all these things as I had my coffee this morning, seeing it in my mind, forming these images into words.  I wondered how you would see it, if you would find value in the images, would see what I hoped.  Even as I imagined the message, I was imagining those I sent it to, and that seasoned how I arranged all these letters.

 We are given this magic, the ability to create in our minds from scratch, and it becomes part of our life, until, for too many of us, we ‘..put away childish things.’  There are some of you who kept the gift in your daily lives, but for many more, it is covered up with the serious and practical.  My purpose in writing this all out is to remind us of the gift.

 It is refreshing to know that children have easy access to this fantastic place in their minds, a reminder for me, and maybe you, that it exists for all of us, always. That’s what I felt when I started, that sensation of standing barefoot in cool sand, feeling the edge of the water bring a startling sensation of being alive.  Seeing a four-year-old boy blink into his imagination, remembering the little ones in my house doing the same, gave me strength to seek my own.  It’s such a joy.

 I’ll add one more thing here.  Delving into our imagination can be satisfying in many ways, including what we create, or how we deal with the multiplicities of life, and in problem solving, or planning.  But what occurred to me as I wrote these first few words was that even what I see as happiness is a product of imagination, of what I see as possible.  I imagine a moment of happiness, and then somehow my hands are willed to create it.  It exists for all of us.

 Sometime today, find the child in you and ask her to take you to your imagination.

 

Hope this finds you building castles in the air,

 

David

 

 

 

Copyright © 2021 David Smith