Imagination, Fairy Tales and Dreams of the Future

The fine line between visioning and imagination/fairy tales/can seem quite slim, but the main difference is this: in visioning you create an image of what you are reaching towards, and then you tuck that vision away, and begin working on it. The work all happens in a state of presence, and eventually the state of presence becomes the vision of the future you envisioned.

Imagination, fairy tales and dreams are elusive, and they most especially, they elude presence. They are a dreamy, ungrounded way to avoid the pain of being present. I knew a man once who did this, he just sped from one experience to the next without ever really even getting into the one he was in. He drove like a complete maniac, in a desperate attempt to get to the next experience, then hung around frantic inside to get to the next one. I didn't know at the time, but he was dying of colon cancer. But what a shame to miss out on the last part of your life because you are so busy rushing to the next experience that you miss the one you're in.

We grow up in this fairy tale land of possibilities and happy endings; and they are surely a possibility. But the possibility does not arise, cannot arise when we are not present in the moment. Possibilities are real because we are paying attention to the lessons life has to offer us, because we are here with whatever is happening, and we are dealing with it in such a way as to open the doors to miracles, possibilities and happy endings - things that just can't happen when we are in a state of denial, anger, resistance, resentment, or when we blame, judge and complain. Imagining a cool future is not what makes a cool future; it is working the present that makes it.

Like everything, we can take tihngs like imagination, fairy tales and dreams of the future and use them as tools. But the real trick is to then come back to the present and make them real.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2008 Darshan F Jessop