“Could she eventually become free to be an individual, rather than the main character in a story from her childhood?” (Care of the Soul, Moore. PP 237)
This line jumped out at me and took my breath away. As I sat there reading, I was considering when I lost my own imagination and, ultimately as a result of that loss, my Self and my sense of my Soul.
We love children because of their freedom, their imaginations, their joys, their wit—they are otherworldly to us. They remind us of what Was, before “real life” grabbed hold of our hearts and minds and our imaginative voice became silent, overwhelmed by the noise of fundamentalism and practicality, the noise of moralism and idealism. We catch a glimpse of these forgotten parts of ourselves when we see children play or when we listen to their concerns.
We are multi dimensional creatures, yet have somehow become accustomed to being one-dimensional. And we wonder why we resent being adults, bored at our jobs and barely scraping by in our personal lives. When was the last time you attempted to interpret your dreams? What was the last ritual you allowed to take hold of you, actively engaging your need for something deeper and more meaningful in your everyday existence?
When we lose Imagination, it’s easy to forget that we are soulful creatures, made up of stories and experiences and dreams and aspirations. We forget that we once existed in a universe of monsters and villains, and that we were the heroes who saved the villages! The sad part is that we still live in a world of monsters and villains, and we are called to be the heroes. When we become complacent, forgetting spirit and soul, we fall asleep and only partially awaken in moments of torment and anger and despair. Yet, we do not even acknowledge those awakenings as anything other than what we like to call “circumstance” or “being an adult.” Sometimes we awaken in moments of joy, but we allow those moments to be fleeting and we give in so easily to the minutia of our newly-found one-dimensional existence.
It is easy to be taken by surprise when someone steps over your boundaries. Oftentimes, you might be unaware that this certain line even exists, until it is crossed. Yet, after the explosion and argument that ensues, how often do you take a step back to examine that line? Do you ask yourself what dimension of you was just unveiled? Was it a Demon or an Angel? Was is a shadowy figure from your past, or was it something beautiful that has yet to be explored? Perhaps it is a theme in your life that you have not yet discovered, but it may be a key to your personhood that you have forgotten, and it holds an essential component to your fulfillment.
Our loss of imagination and soul marks the loss of individual livelihood. When we give in to world views and expectations and give up on soulful and imaginative thoughts, fantasies, and desires, we become…
Well, we become what we have become: blaming our parents and our circumstances for our compulsive behaviors, our loneliness, and our inability to connect to anything or anyone worthwhile.
It might be time to begin engaging in the search for your deepest soul and imagination; time to embark on the journey to see through your mind’s eye the images and gods and themes of joy and your universe; time to, once again, be free to be an Individual—not a mere Character in your life, which probably at this point, has been neatly boxed in and characterized and titled by some Psychologist somewhere as being nothing more than “Survivor” or “Adjustment Disorder” or “Manic Depressive.”
