Imagination: (It's Good For You)

     Remember when you were a kid, you could sit back and stare at the clouds and see infinite ever changing images. Imagination is one of the truly human things we posses. It allows us to step away from the rigidity of the real world, it allows to have free flowing thought, unimpeded by the stress of getting by from day to day. Sometimes I wonder why imagination was so easy to access as a child, and why as an adult it seems so fleeting.
     Remember when you played baseball or football after school, couldn't wait to call your shot like Babe Ruth, couldn't wait to make that one handed grab, and score that game winning touchdown to win the Super Bowl. Remember playing war with your friends in the woods, setting up jails, booby traps, and eventually winning. Remember when your parents got a new refrigerator, and all you had to do was redecorate the box to create your spaceship to the stars and beyond. Being a kid was certainly fun, to bad we have to grow up!
     I think sometimes that as adults we press ourselves into such a rigid way of life, "The Rat Race," that we forget how to keep our imagination fluid. We worry about work, bills, our children, and so on, that sometimes we forget to go out and just have fun. The things we do as recreation even cause us stress sometimes. I can tell you with a straight face, I would much rather go play football in my old neighborhood than deal with parking, food, crowds, traffic and all the other headaches that go along with going to an NFL game. Yet somehow we are led to believe that going to the game is the ultimate experience for a football fan.
     I love to day-dream and let my mind wonder, you know that feeling you get when you just stare at something and let your mind go, yeah, that's where the good stuff comes from. Imagination has gotten us to the moon. Imagination has allowed scientists to develop new technologies that have allowed us to see so far in to space, that we are actually viewing events that happened millions and billions of years ago. So next time your stressed out, overworked, underpaid, and the world feels like it is going to swallow you whole, relax.
Maybe all you need to do is, go out to the back yard, get comfortable in your favorite chair, and just stare at the clouds. Who knows what you can come up with. It seems to have worked well for Einstein. I leave you with a quote from Einstein to ponder. "The Intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." Good Luck America!!