Remember when you were a kid and you believed in everything? The Easter Bunny, Santa, Tooth Fairy, all those good guys. But you also believed in stories your friends told you in first grade. You believed your cousins when they told you moss covered oak trees were really old hags that wanted to eat you at midnight. You believed your mom when she told you that chewing on your hair would cause you to vomit slugs. You believed in unicorns and that the underside of mushrooms housed fairies. You believed the Disney movies when they told you that anyone can be a hero, that you can find your prince, that animals can talk and sing.
My point is…as a child you were so willing and able to believe pretty much anything. As an adult, believing in everything is called being gullible. But…isn’t that the way we’re supposed to be? To believe that anything, really ANYTHING is possible. Even the things that can’t be explained or justified or backed with facts. I believe you can live life like it’s a fairy tale, full of fantasy and adventure. Do you know how electricity works? Really stop and think about it. I have no idea how something I rely on for most of my day works. But I believe in it. Just because you don’t understand something or because you can’t see it…doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
The other night Danny and I watched a movie called “The Watcher in the Woods”. It’s a 1980’s Disney film. I would call it a kid’s movie but it was honestly a little scary, even for being filmed in the 80’s. The entire movie the eldest daughter repeatedly tells her parents that she is seeing and hearing and feeling weird things about the new house they move into. She feels like she’s being watched all the time, her little sister is acting super weird, she sees faces besides her own in mirrors. Over and over she tells her parents that something is not right. And over and over her parents tell her that she is overreacting, that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, everything is fine, she’s just nervous about moving to a new place. blah blah blah. Until finally they decide to leave the house on a dark and stormy night and the car gets stuck on the bridge and bursts into flames and falls over a cliff. ONLY THEN does the mom starts to realize something is up. What happens to us as we grow up that makes us suddenly stop believing in anything besides concrete facts? Why do we stop believing in fairy tales and the unexplained? Any why oh why do we transfer that onto our children? I want to believe with my children. If they wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me there’s a monster in their room, I won’t tell them to go back to sleep and forget about it. I’ll go get the sage and light it up and clear the room. If they tell me there is a flying green jelly bean that likes to come for tea in the afternoon, I will ask if I can join the party.
How boring would this world be if all there was to it was to be born, go to school, get a job, work for 50+ years, and die? I’d rather live a world believing in the Outrageous and Fantastical. In my world, nature speaks to me. The trees call to me and the flowers sing. Animals dance and the clouds beckon. The crystals I carry with me are alive with their own personalities and have healing powers. Angels surround me, protect me, and guide me. Aliens live on distant planets and also among me. I was once a star shining bright in the cosmos. These things are real because I believe in them. I might not have ever seen a unicorn physically standing before me, but I can close my eyes and see one immediately. I can close my eyes in meditation and travel to far away galaxies or deep into the earth’s core. My imagination gives me the power. I won’t stop believing.