There are times when I become sleepy during the day and start to doze off. When I do, I sometimes daydream in a half sleep, half awake mode lasting a matter of seconds or, at most, minutes. Some of them take me into a problem solving mode, while others take me to a seemingly unreal world. That world is, most often, a pleasant world. Whether old or young, I believe most of us daydream once in awhile (it is very apparent when some are daydreaming for they may be next to you, but their minds are far adrift). My older sister was an ardent daydreamer and everyone in the family was aware of it. She would appear to be awake, but her mind was off in another world. You might ask her a question, and there would be no response until she was nudged and brought back to reality.
On Friday afternoons I read stories, poems and jokes for one hour to some elderly residents of a local nursing home. I asked them one afternoon if they ever daydreamed, and most of them said ‘yes;’ only a few were not aware of doing so. The following is an interesting poem that I read to them recently that was titled,
‘Daydreams.’ The author was unknown.
If thoughts could paint pictures that words dare not speak, And daydreams built castles of that which we seek,
Then artists and architects all would we be;
Our hearts would be open, our minds would be free.
I’d build you a castle as daydreams unfold, Revealing the feelings I secretly hold.
I’d paint you a picture of words left unsaid, And feelings of closeness to which they have led. But pictures are thoughts that so rarely are told,
For fear of appearing too forward and bold. And castles are built in a daydreamer’s heart, A lifetime of wishes still lifetimes apart.
And yet we are richer for all that we feel,
No matter how abstract, no matter how real. For joy is a picture we paint in our minds, And love is the castle our hearts hope to find.
I was so impressed with the poet’s expressive thought, that I had to read it to the elderly twice. The thoughts of the poem were in my mind later, and so I decided to put a few thoughts of my own down concerning daydreams, since they are, in fact, a part of most of our lives. I believe that as we tire mentally during the day, our minds need a rest or need to escape momentarily from what we are doing. If we don’t, knowingly, take the hint and leave the project for a little while, our minds will slip away anyway. Captain J. A. Hadfield said, “This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.” Daydreams may be our way of slipping away to regenerate some energy so that we can carry on. Our daydreams are a way to escape stressful reality, even if it is just for a few moments. A problem may come to us at a time that we don’t want to deal with it. Whether we just get away and do something else until we are ready to deal with it or we can just escape mentally. Maybe it is all the same. I believe daydreams have sometimes been given a negative connotation. I have heard people refer to another as a lazy ‘daydreamer,’ as if it were a mental disability, when in reality, the dreamer is regenerat- ing or even momentarily escaping from a difficult time in his life; his way of saving himself from greater stress than he can deal with at a given moment. Edmund Burke was a famous conservative, and he said that we should, “Acknowledge reality, respect it, and make the most progress possible within it.” In like manner, maybe we should acknowledge daydreams for what they are, respect them, and make the most of them as energizing moments that refresh and sometimes even protect us from life’s problems. As the above poet has said, “And yet we are richer for all that we feel, no matter how abstract, no matter how real. For joy is a picture we paint in our minds, And love is the castle our hearts hope to find.” Let us not be ashamed of our daydreaming from time to time but rather make the most of them. May God bless us to learn from the thoughts of others, their paintings, their poetry and a few words of wisdom that may sometimes be hidden in their conversation or writings.