When we were kids — if we were lucky — all of us would go out and play.
We would play, and play. No one really taught us how, when you think of it. We just knew. We’d go out there and use our minds to create our little bits of happiness, and goodness, and joy.
Most of the time, we would create our own realities. We would imagine the grandest of worlds, filled with new discoveries. We’d find ways to be smart, and daring, and bold. Right before our eyes was the world spectacular. We knew it. We saw it. It was all around us, this magnificent thing.
Albeit, sometimes if we were playing with others, we might have to do a little explaining. “No, Bobby. The big green monster, standing right there in front of you. Use your magic rocks, Bob. Throw them down at his feet. He hates that!” And then Bobby would see, finally. And ward off the monster with the magic rocks. We’d save the day. Again, and again.
Our amazing minds. And it all came to us, without instruction. Without guidance. It rose up from the very deep of our own little selves. Like magic.
We would color, and draw, and cut and paste. Much in the same way. Building worlds on paper. Creating our own works of art.
Then. One day, we changed. Most of us, at least. We quit creating the fantastic worlds. We put away our crayons. We tucked away our magic swords, and potions, and stones. We made that fateful decision that we were “getting too big for all of that.” Or so we heard.
And we believed them.
The faeries, the monsters, the goblins, and the elves, all ducked back into the shadows. The witches, the giants, the gnomes, and the magic mice all fell silent.
The screen went dark. The curtain closed. The end, the end, the end.
Our little brilliant and fantastic minds, all silenced by doubt. And guilt. We are much too old for that, they said.
So in our older selves, we look outside for the wonder worlds. Some dive into books. Or we go to the television shows, and movies. Theme parks and vacations. Video games. Casinos. And just to go, is not enough. Numb the mind with a little alcohol, or even a drug or two, or three, or four.
And the light of the true magic gets dimmer and dimmer. Until it goes out.
Oh, to live our lives in reverse. To start out as dark and distant souls, worn out and unbelieving. Walking around with our heads down, filled with the weight of the world. In the very dark gray. Until we begin to grow. Younger and younger. Our eyes start to open, and our hearts start to sing. And before you know it, we are filled with the light fantastic again. We dance in the daisies, and we dare the greenest dragons. We sing made-up songs, as we lie on our backs and look up at the white and magnificent clouds, as they swim above the land of amazing. Back to that place where we created our own happiness.
I’m going to be that kid today. If only for a moment.
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“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
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“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
― Anne Frank
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