Just Imagine...

Today was a sweat shirt, jeans, and hot coffee kind of day. The kind of day when one just wants to hole up and enjoy being alone. A day to recharge and breath, loving the winter sky and the cold air. Today was the kind of day when one wishes that the sky might just send down merry little snow flakes and then, when they do not come, it was the kind of day to be disappointed in no snow. Today was a Schumann and Mozart sort of day, a Milo and Otis childhood day, when being content comes very easy. This day begged for one to take a nice, long, dreamy sort of nap, the kind of nap where you wake up slowly and just enjoy laying under a down comforter.

Then, evening came creeping in while the down comforter still held its hostage. Said hostage finally drug herself up and the evening promptly demanded grapefruit and boiled eggs for dinner. Yes, is was that sort of evening. Delightful. Beautiful really, for nothing extraordinary happened, there was no laughing or running about, just time spent in a beautiful little room with reading, music, simple food, and the complete ordinariness of being alone. It was perfect.

Something has to be said for not being lonely or unhappy when you are alone with just yourself. I cannot imagine not wanting to be alone, for though I love being with people, I've found that I require time completely alone to recharge something in me. I love to talk with people, especially one on one, however, I love not talking and just being still and thinking all by myself. I'm not sure I know the meaning of the word "bored" for even when I was a little girl, I always found that I could retreat to my thoughts and imagine all sorts of wonderful and delightful things, even in the midst of some situation that would have otherwise been boring. My imagination has had some very good practice over the years because of this. It is, in my humble opinion, quite important to keep one's imagination in good working order, especially after one has left childhood behind. So often, grown ups let their imagination fall into complete ruin after a certain age. Why? I can't imagine not using mine for so long that it ceases to work all together. What are grown ups thinking?! Oh, well, I suppose that's the problem, they're not thinking at all.

Just imagine, imagine when you were a little boy or girl, what sparked your imagination to life? Were you a pirate on some high seas adventure? Or perhaps you were a princess, locked away in a tall tower, completely confident that your knight was on his way to rescue you. My tower was a very tall magnolia tree that was absolutely made to be climbed. Oh, the places and things that magnolia tree became in my world. It served as a tall tower where I was locked away by an evil sorcerer one day and became a beautiful castle, reaching to the sky the next. Grand balls and delicious feasts were held underneath it's shiny leaves and many hours were spent just thinking and surveying the lay of the land from the upmost top of its branches.

Then, of course, there was the fig tree. Yes, I said a fig tree. A beautiful little tree who's branches went all the way to the ground and who's leaves were big enough to block all view from the outside. The inside was a perfect "house" for the branches only went up and out so it seemed to be hollow and truly like a tree house. Many hours were passed inside this little haven, pretending that it was a quaint cottage in England or Ireland, lived in by a girl who loved to "cook" delicious meals and tend to her flower garden. Of course, it always was under the shadow and protection of the grand Magnolia Castle just across the way. There was a "stable" comprised of a little grape arbor just next door, and beautiful arabian horses filled its gates. This was the stuff of dreams and wonder, this was my imagination brought to life. Where each day held one new adventure after another, either played by a beautiful princess or a simple girl who lived in a magical little cottage.

Can you picture it? Can you see, smell, or hear what brought your imagination to life? Can you return to that enchanted place of wonder, where anything was possible, and reality was made of whatever you wanted it to be? Why do we want to live in a world where we cannot return and visit now and then? Yes, we are grown ups, we have to be responsible and realistic...but, there are times that call for the realistic to be cast aside and your imagination allowed to soar. There are times when believing in fairies, dragons, gnomes, and unicorns are essential to living in this responsible and realistic world we are called to live in. If we do not know how to revisit and believe in all we once did, then something in us dies and it is a devastating death, for we hardly even comprehend the enormity of what we've lost. Don't let it die. Tonight or today, whenever you happen to be reading this, revisit that place you once knew. Sit and be still and allow your imagination to soar. Oh, what an incredible, wonderful adventure you're in store for if you do...