The Other Side of Imagination

Preparation

Image by Engin Akyurt

I’ve been here before.

That’s the opening line of my first novel. It’s kind of eerie reflecting on how perfectly that line describes so much of my life. Even in the novel, the line is an allusion to the main character’s tribulations and the feeling that no matter what he does, he ends up in the same place.

When I think of that line, it reminds me that I “saw” everything. Whatever success I’m enjoying now, I’ve seen it in my mind a million times before it ever came to fruition. As clear as an image on my computer screen, I knew the life I wanted was on the other side of my imagination.

But my imagination came first. Then those images turned to goals. Those goals turned to plans. Those plans turned to preparation. Now so much of what I imagined is a reality. It’s my life.

I’m very intentional about daydreaming. I find alone time with no devices, no TV, no sounds. Just me and my own mind. I let thoughts float in, around, and out of my head with no filter. No judgement. Whatever those thoughts are, they are.

Some of those thoughts I grasp on to. They become characters in one of my novels, an idea for one of my newsletters, a conversation I want to have with my daughter. They become new visions I have for myself, places I want to visit, spaces I want to exist…