Imagination's Boundless Wonders, Therapy for Aging

Remember when you were growing up and your imagination seemed boundless. Remember creating all sorts of fantasies that led to adventures and landscapes full of wonder. Remember discovering, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, new games, dramas, worlds that led you on trails of amazing and unusual adventure.

Your imagination was the source. That part of your brain which had to be called upon to remember world geography, biological identifications, mathematical equation, linguistic rules at school every week took frequent vacations to wonderlands of marvelous creativity and wonder. Inspiration came by way of a cowboy western, a fictional space exploration, an idea that emerged from on screen or a book you were reading or a play you had seen.

Now, all these years later, where has that imagination fled? How did imagination find replacement with boredom? Why is distraction not given permission to take over? When do we allow ourselves the magic of walking down pathways knowing not where they lead?

Obviously, not all of us are left with an imagination deficit. Older persons still write amazingly incredible novels. Some persons tinker in their basements or garages or workshops or garden houses to come up with all kinds of remarkable innovations, discoveries, alterations of things and nature.

Look at wherever you go to allow your imagination to run free. Instead of workshop, why not call it a “workship,” which will carry you on voyages of unpredictable discovery. Equip your ship with all you will need for the trip. Climb aboard and head any direction you wish. Perhaps you will, like many another explorer, take us all to new lands and wonders.

Imagination is not alone for the young, it is Therapy for the Aging. It is within easy reach, even if disabled and limited. The limits are, after all, only in your imagination. Expel the excuses for delay, insist with yourself that you “go out and play” today at whatever your imagination finds tempting. Bring home your discoveries, your stories, your curious adventures. Share them with others, whose imagination is awaiting just the spark to get them going. You will find that whatever may have held you down and back has now become forgotten and your imagination has cured your reluctance. Sharpen it, use it, exercise it until it becomes as strong as your physical muscles, as able as you wish to be.

Keep your “workship” in trim, ready for the next voyage. Upon your return share your magical excursion with the rest of us. Blend your stories with testimonies of how much livelier daily existence really can be.