In Search of Imagination

It’s a new year and I must decide what to make of it. I want to write my stories as well as make things to give as gifts. Something tangible to say ”Yes, I was here”. While I’m at it, if there is a magic genie out there, I want to be thin, rich, and beautiful. Guess who the genie has to be?

Reading other bloggers writing has recently left me totally blown away by the level of creativity and imagination that they possess. My blogging friend at Gardening Nirvana writes about her garden and her fairy gardens. The imagination that goes into her fairy gardens actually left me breathless and stunned. I have no concept of how that level of imagination works. Another blogging friend at Boomdeeadda writes about her crafts that are so fun and delightful, I feel as though I have been sitting under a rainbow while I read.

I, on the other hand, write “just the facts ma’am”. Life for me has been real and tight. Budgets were tight, shoes were tight, emotions and rules, tighter still. Imagination was not something that was encouraged in our home. We colored in the lines at school and not at all at home. I was once given a paint by number set by someone other than my parents, somehow managing to get paint on my clothes in the process of completing the picture. Getting paint on my clothes created a crisis in our house since I had so few. I had to get work with neighbors to raise the money to buy new clothes. I was 12 at the time.

How do you go from paint by number to fairy gardens? I wish I knew. All of my projects have directions and if I don’t understand the directions or do them incorrectly, everything comes to a grinding halt. I’m afraid I may have passed that on to some degree to my children. We all graduated from the “Do it right and do it well” school. There is a place for that but I see now there is a place for imagination to rule the roost.

For those of you who are not sure if your writing makes any difference in the world, I can guarantee, it does. You’ve probably touched more lives than you know. I know I question mine every week. I’ve learned how to be happy with less from livingsimplyfree and the difference between Miracle Whip and Mayonnaise from Texana”s Kitchen. Now, she can write funny and serious. Every day, I learn something from you wonderful bloggers and I just have to let you know.

I’m trying to write happy and funny stories but I have so little experience with them. It’s not even in the realm of my imagination. Another blogging friend writes about reducing her life to the smallest footprint possible. I’ve lived that most of my life. I know it well. I want to imagine a big life, filled with joy and toys and happy experiences. Why didn’t anyone tell me that imagination was the most vital key to a fulfilling life? Now, how do I develop one? That’s what I want to learn next.

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” ― Albert Einstein

From my heart to yours,
Marlene Herself