The Magic of Childhood - Faith, Hope and Love

I found a treasure chest of memories today. No map - just a closet that needed cleaning. It started with the sight of my baby blanket on the top shelf and childhood pictures on the bottom that led me to the X marking the spot - so here it goes...

Many of you do not know this about me, but in my 26 years of life so far, I have been many things. I was a professional basketball player dunking on the hoop attached to my closet door. I was Rose in the movie 'Titanic' who saved Jack from the sinking ship - making sure there was enough room on the floating wooden board for BOTH of us - even though it was staged on the grass in my grandfather's backyard. I was an aspiring Pulitzer Prize recipient who wrote SO many books on computer paper - filled with the misspellings of my 3rd grade vocabulary and the best stick figures on this side of Mississippi. I was a QVC host who tried selling my most prized possessions to my family members in our living room - my cherished collection of matchbox cars, choker necklaces and stick-on earrings because I didn't have my ears pierced yet. I was a tattoo artist - doodling with marker on a piece of Scotch tape that I stuck on my mother's arm, promising that it would last forever. And the list goes on and on...

Ah yes, childhood.

My imaginative little mind was like a nomad - traveling here and there; jumping around from professional athlete to actress to an award-winning author to a television network host and finally to an artist and so much more. I get lost in thinking about all of the roles I played, the aspirations I once had and the wonder of it all - that thirty-thousand foot idea that you can do anything; be anything.

Close your eyes for a moment and go back to a time or place from your childhood of happiness, laughter, imagination and magic. To a time where you wondered what it felt like to fly. When you envisioned that falling in love would look and feel exactly like a Disney movie fairy-tale every time. Where you looked at a mirror and saw a secret pathway to a magical kingdom instead of an instrument to pick out your self-declared flaws. When your biggest worry was who you were going to trade that bag of carrots with that your parent packed you for lunch or whether the digital pet on your Tomagatchie was going to still be alive when you got off the bus. When you had some understanding of evil but wanted so badly to only see the good in people so you clung to your innocence and naiveness - until you grew older and paid more attention to the news or overcame your first eye-opening experience - involuntarily losing control over your ability to keep a non-judgmental mind.

You see, somewhere along the way, we lost that magic and wonder of our childhood. We began to see things in a more realistic and, perhaps, even a more cynical light. Our childhood wonder and curiosity were overtaken by anxiety and worry and our dreams and ambitions were replaced with complacency and fear of failure and change.

Somewhere along the way, we grew up.

But I challenge you all to let your mind wander back to your glory days of the past - where your boundaries are not restricted by finances, logistics or responsibilities. Where your imagination ran free; your heart wild.

Do not lose that twinkle of innocent wonder in your eyes. Do not lose that dream to become an astronaut, a doctor or NASA's newest position of protecting Earth from aliens. Do not lose the excitement on Christmas morning -there may be fewer gifts beneath the tree, but that is only because the gifts in your life are now disguised in things that cannot be wrapped and carried down the chimney in Santa's bag. Do not lose your superpower of believing in the goodness of this world; harness that power to see the best in everyone you meet - even if it is difficult to do.

The magic of our childhood is not that we were young and innocent without a care in the world, it is that our childhood once showed us how to believe in things that cannot always be seen, to dream without limits and to see without judgement - faith, hope and love.