So, a child’s imagination begins by witnessing the magic adults perform every day. Slowly, that youthful seed is planted, watered and cared for. If you don’t identify with the plant metaphor, then please consider an infectious bug growing and spreading throughout a growing mind.

A carpenter’s creation, a physician’s caring hand and heart, a teacher recognizing the gifts of each, a parent and perhaps better than your own, a speaker bringing people together addressing causes thought unsolvable, the mechanic who seems to know everything, that friendly retail/service person whose smile is sincere, that person with a knack for finance adding-in integrity, the wordsmith after reading many of the classics, that school guard who later became a policeman, that disabled one who plans trips for others who can, those radio rock jocks and the priest leading prayer…

Occupational dreams ought never to be discarded or discouraged. They are gateways toward a full and meaningful life. Even if the path varies or changes, it is the imagination that endures.

It’s the promising gift each child begins to accumulate, percolate and unravel, I mean “unfold,” into the person they can love and love with another and then shared with all those they meet.

(I’m the last one on the list, by the way.)