Eliciting Childhood Dreams

As children we are taught to dream. We are instructed to create stories and fantasy worlds that entertain us and make life worth living. In the days when a backyard can turn into the surface of the moon, a rain forest or a fantasy island we (as children) smile. We believe that the world belongs to us and no care or concern is trivial enough to matter (except maybe how mad little Johnny down the street may be when he realizes we didn’t give back his toy machine gun.) We smile, we laugh, we cry and most of all, we believe.

As an adult, I find that that belief is harder to come by. My days are no longer filled with daring missions to the moon or escaping the wrath of the evil Lord _______ (you fill in the blank.) Instead I fight to remind myself that somewhere locked deep within me is that child-like dreamer; somewhere deep inside is that creative individual that can turn a rainy Sunday afternoon into a dream-like paradise. I sit behind my desk and attempt to make a difference in the world, but even that talented, youthful dreamer can’t convince me that auditing regulations are anything more than the dry, boring reality that they are…

Where is this going? It’s going to afternoons and early evenings spent locked in other people’s realities as I escape the life that is supposed to be mine , it’s going to the movies that have become my safe haven from the world that has become my reality and it is going to the question: what am I going to do about it?

I, much like I hope the rest of you will, am going wake-up the child that lays sleeping somewhere inside me. I’m going to take him on a trip to “mental Disneyland” where I am going to ask him to help me dream up a new reality; one filled with things that are going to make me smile, people that are going to help me laugh and tasks that are going to make a difference. It’s going to a time when I look forward to my days with the same anticipation and excitement that I used to have as a child, it’s going to that face that stares at me every morning and instead of saying “this again?” says “This again!”. So simple, yet so hard. Who’s with me?