Happiness is a Choice

Take Time to Dream

The onslaught of electronics, cellphones, constant news bursts and two jobs melded into one to create a world filled with overstressed, overworked and under-pleasured people.  No wonder some snap and behave in such unseemly ways!

Maybe we need to daydream and backporch-vacation more often.  I grew up in rural Louisiana in the nineteen-forties and fifties when the living was easy and exercising my imagination was encouraged.  Let me be so presumptuous as to share that advantage with anyone willing to continue to read this essay.

There are only five written-in-stone rules for taking a mental vacation built-for-two.

Rule One:  Turn off the outside world, the television, all things electronic, including telephones, cell and otherwise.  Leave the newspaper unread on the coffee table and don't answer the doorbell.

Rule Two:  Invite your significant other to join you.

Rule Three:  Pour a couple of cups of coffee or glasses of wine.

Rule Four:  Agree to suspend reality in favor of fantasizing your individual dreams.

Rule Five:  Take turns.

This last rule is the most difficult one to follow.  It requires giving the floor to another's dreams, listening and getting lost in someone else's imagination to the extent of becoming a part of their fantasy.    Add to their fairy-tale world.  After all, money is no object, time is there for the taking and you are limited only by your minds' boundaries.  The stress, the worries and the artificialness of the world will slide easily from your shoulders as you and your partner take a whirl in a perfect world.  Full immersion is the only way to go, and your turn will come.

When time runs out or the sun goes down and you return to the physical world, there's still the kids and those attendant responsibilities.  The nine-to-five begins again tomorrow, and it will include the same headaches you left there.  The mental, physical and emotional trials have only been set aside for a short respite.  The only difference is you.

Your batteries are recharged, and you again see things in the proper perspective.  No matter what's happening today, good or bad, it's temporary.  The only thing of value is sharing a little love with those around us.  I've discovered these escapes can be enjoyed with a good friend, a child on a picnic or even a bedridden neighbor.  Flights of mental fancy cannot be caged, they are always affordable and may add years to your life.

Take a vacation today with someone you love!