“If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If you’re a pretender come sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!”
Shel Silverstein
I learned this by accident, and I learned it a long time ago: that when I have a “problem” to be solved, I can set the problem in my imagination and see the solution just out in the distance a bit, still wrapped in a light mist of protection. Once I see that the solution is there, even though I cannot see it yet, I begin to feel a little easier about the “problem.” Shortly, the mist will burn away in the clarity of understanding, and I will know what the solution is. That might take an hour, or a day, or several days, and it often comes as if out of the blue–of my imagination.
I think of this as sowing seeds of imagination. Just because the sowing and the growing happen in the realm of imagination, don’t think for a minute that this isn’t real or that the results cannot be very practical.
It’s spring time. Why not give this a try, and try with something small today. What thing stands before you that you need to solve today but which you don’t have a ready solution for? I only call these a “problem” because they are things we don’t have a solution to. They may be troublesome and negative, but they might just be something good and happy for which we still don’t know the next step.
Close your eyes. See the problem. Look a little further out beyond the problem, in your imagination, and see that a cloudy mist has formed. Take a moment to realize that the solution to your problem is inside the mist. Allow yourself to feel a little relieved that the solution is there. Confirm within yourself that the solution will make itself known to you soon. Wait to see what grows in the field of your imagination.
Bob Patrick
