I’ve been told I had an imaginary friend as a child. With all my heart I wish I could see her now, could remember my way to sensing her again.
Like the dutiful eldest daughter I have always been, I grew up well behaved, I grew into a straight A+ student, physics major, accomplished business owner, logical and capable bill payer, and parent.
I never completely gave up imagining and dreaming. (How could one and still live?) I did, however, send my dreaming self to the way, way back of the bus, and I told her to be quiet and look professional.
Lately, though, I’ve come to realize how much I need her. I need her like I’ve never ever needed any other parts of me. Because there’s just too much of what is golden and gorgeous, what is mystical and magical, what is mind-blowingly awesome and magnificent in this universe and in each one of us that imagination has the key to.
Good thing I’ve arranged to have various inner and outer allies keep me dreaming and remembering. Recently I opened my email box to this quote sent by Peace on the Inside from Norman Cousins: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
Thanks, Norman! I’m going to laugh myself healthy today, sit in the damp grass and wish for fairies, imagine what might be happening in this impossibly vast universe of over 100 billion galaxies, close my business correspondence with xoxoxox, see each person I come into contact with as the brilliant sparks of the Divine they are, hold a clear vision of our vibrant planet free from war and hunger and slavery with everyone living their creative potential, and give my brilliant imaginative self full permission to drive the bus!
(While sitting in the back she was talking to some guy name Albert who told her that the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Imagine that!)