In our every day life of adulthood, we spend the majority of our time worrying about a variety of things,some of which we have no control, like the weather or who is going to win the Super Bowl. At the same time, a lot of our time is consumed with worrying about things that we do have some control, finances, children, and work. As adults, we take little time for ourselves to dream and fantasize. As a youngster, remember the imagination that we each hard, we could take a stick and it would instantly become whatever we chose it to be. We played games and let our imaginations run wild. As a youngster, prior to moving to Alaska, I ran the adobe hills behind our little ranch, I shot more outlaws and Indians than all the other western idols put together. Billy the Kid was no match for me on the quick draw. But, somewhere between puberty and adulthood, we loose the ability to imagine, to dream. All of your dreams will never materialize, but for a brief instance in your hectic life, you can escape from reality. One day, as your children are playing, stop for a brief moment and listen to what they are doing, listen to their imagination and their beliefs. Will these childish imaginations and fantasies ever materialize? You will never know until you believe enough. This concept was recently proved to me.
The story is of a young girl that was enchanted with dragons. As adults, we know that dragons most likely never existed, but she believed. She knew dragons existed in the woods surrounding her grand parents home and that it would be just a matter of time before she would be able to entice one into the open. In her readings, she discovered dragons were attracted to shiny objects, such as jewels and other sparkled items. She obtain a silver bowl, filled it with beads, crystals, and other imaginary jewels. Prior to going to bed, she set the bowl in the window so the dragon would surely see it. The following morning, upon checking the bowl she discovered no sign that the dragon had visited. As adults, we would have seen this as a failure and of course we know that dragons do not exist in the woods. The little girl did not show any disappointment, because she still believed. On her next visit, she once again set out the silver bowl filled with the bounty for the dragon and to increase the inducement she set out a carrot for food.
During the night, she heard a dog bark and the following morning, she checked the bowl of jewels, they remained in the same place but the carrot was gone! She looked outside the window, the freshly fallen snow was packed down with large tracks including the tracks of the tail of a dragon. Going from window to window, she discovered more tracks surrounding the house and across the lawn leading to the woods,the dragon had visited! Was this reality or a fantasy. As an adult, I would conclude that it was the imagination of a little girl that wanted so hard to believe
that she also fantasized the tracks in the snow. But this was not the case, I witnessed those same tracks! For those that do not believe, the tracks were much larger than any existing tracks that I know of. They were clearly defined in the soft snow, measuring about three feet long and two feet wide at the widest point with five distinct toes, measuring from the shortest of about six inches to the longest of about fourteen inches with a spur coming off the heel of the foot measuring about six inches. They were tracks that I have never seen in my lifetime and perhaps will never have the opportunity to see again. There is no great moral to this story, except as this little girl demonstrated, despite what others may say, believe in yourself, listen to your heart and not always to your mind, miracles can happen, we just have to believe and be optimistic that our dreams will come true.