Child's Play: The Reality of Perception.

I remember when I was a pink power ranger.

 Even now, I can still remember lesson plans from my days as a teacher. Let's not leave out my dabbling in witchcraft; chanting away most afternoons. I remember being Barbie and Ken's real estate agent, trying to sell them their dream house. Busy little me, I was their car salesman too. I mean, who doesn't want a corvette... really?

I changed jobs frequently, then.

I could have been anybody, then.

Of course this was before the real world. Real being the transition from toddler to teenager, to hourly wager. Before social circles and music genres. Before reality t.v. and bikini sizes. Before the real world came into play, my biggest worry was how to avoid my neighbor Patty beating me in box ball.

I'm not saying I would go back to that time if I could. Growing up is confusing enough the first time around. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I find myself rather envious of that blissful lack of awareness; awareness of real things. 

What is reality anyway? Perception is the only answer that comes to mind. A cognitive assessment derived by means of our only connection to the real world; our perspective.

What shifts our perspective over the years? Is it that as we get older, we become more sensitive to reality, or do we grow callous to it as time goes on? 

Golda Meir said that, "a miracle is nothing but a shift in perspective". Maybe getting older, and having seen things from that perspective, is the miracle we all take for granted. Maybe the ability to imagine, and play, and dream, is a miracle only realized from a shift out of that perspective. 

I still imagine things I want.

I still dream.

Looking back, I would have rather have fallen and scraped my knees, than not played on the swings.

This article is dedicated to Tatiana. The little girl in the pictures, and a maker of miracles.