Just Imagine.....

A couple months back Princess got a little plastic dolphin from the treasure box at school.  She was very excited about it!  Princess told a classmate all about how she wished she had a REAL dolphin that she could keep in a nearby reservoir and go for rides on.  Her classmate looked at her in mild disgust and proceeded to tell her that it just was NOT possible.  Princess shook her head and said "I know...I'm just using my imagination!".  What happened next shocked and saddened me.  Princess's classmate, in a rather haughty little voice, proclaimed "I NEVER use my imagination".  How sad is that???  This child is FIVE years old and doesn't think it's necessary to use her imagination. 

Can you imagine where mankind would be now if it weren't for imaginations?  Would we have fire, houses, electricity, medicines, books, scientific advances, theater, ANYthing?  I don't think Einstein just woke up one day and pronounced E=MC2!  I think he used his imagination to picture what things might be possible.  Alexander Graham Bell must have imagined being able to talk to someone on the other side of the city instantaneously before inventing the telephone.  Is not curiosity just an extension of imagination?  Without imagination I dare say the world would be an awful place to live! 

I am very grateful that my parents instilled in my siblings and I a very healthy dose of imagination.  They really fostered that curiosity, that will to see things differently.  I love seeing that same will in my own children.  I am so happy that they have a love of using their minds to see things differently and to imagine something different.  Picasso exclaimed the other day that "I have the best imagination EVER!".  Thank goodness for children!  They help keep that imagination alive in us; they help us not take ourselves to seriously.

What have you imagined today?