We're Never Too Old To Daydream

How did I get to the point that I speed read everything, skipping over the detailed descriptions of mists and autumn trees? I need to reawaken my ability to daydream.

Last night I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien. A proper paper book, not an e-book or audio book. This is a 1973 edition with the cover torn off and the pages yellowed. With reading glasses and a flashlight in hand, I'm enjoying reading this story for what seems like the first time. It's been so long since I read the actual book. I've relied on movies for far too long to enjoy favorite authors. In fact, since the Imagination edition of Paola Lane Magazine, I've been reading from proper books every night. This summer, I read every single one of Jane Austen's novels (at least once). Now I'm working through Tolkien.

Something interesting is happening…I'm reawakening my ability to daydream.

This time around, I'm reading to savor (versus reading to get a school assignment finished!). Within the letters on the page are lessons on life, revelations in human character, and lovely details that I often overlook in real life. Such as this sentence from The Fellowship of the Ring:

“Away eastward the sun was rising red out of the mists that lay thick on the world. Touched with gold and red the autumn trees seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy sea. A little below him to the left the road ran down steeply into a hollow and disappeared.”

-Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, chapter 3

Can you see it? The picture that is described here? I read and reread it slowly until I could make out in my mind the mist, a red-orange ball of sun, and especially the little road off to the side. To think of mist as thick. It caused me to recall moments when I saw anything like this scene. Certainly, the next time I see mist, I'll be observing it more intently.

Initially, I was reading through the text too fast to allow my imagination to paint pictures. Surprisingly, it was difficult to picture in my mind what this scene looks like at first. I guess I'm out of practice. How did I get to the point that I speed read everything, skipping over the detailed descriptions of mists and autumn trees?

I want to learn to daydream again. The right way. To engage my imagination for fun and creativity and be able to paint pictures with my mind with the ease of a toddler. That's what I want; in essence, to wake up that part of my brain which sunk into a deep sleep with each video or movie I traded out over a book. I let someone else's imagination do the work instead of my own. Or, I supposed with each passing year that daydreaming was for children. Oh, how wrong that is!

We're never too old to daydream. In fact, I'd argue that if adults never stop practicing daydreaming and imagining, we should be the ones teaching kids to daydream (not the other way around). 🥰