Bedtime Stories

My children were ill with a passing stomach virus over the weekend.  This robbed all of us of sleep Sat night and entailed many loads of laundry.  I had to go out and buy a new mattress cover for my bed, as the one that had been on it was discovered to have a big rip in the plastic layer attached, when I took it off to be washed.  I bought one I like much better and it probably cost less, coming this time from Walmart instead of Bed, Bath & Beyond.  The old one had always been “hot” and “noisy” to sleep on.

I spotted a new DVD - Walt Disney's Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler.  It said ”A Comedy The Entire Family Can Enjoy”.  The subtitle was “Believe in Happy Endings”.  We are a family of storytellers.  Not in a professional sense but in an active sense.

When I returned home, we all stopped doing what we were doing and rested to watch the video.  It is about Sandler, who is asked to babysit his sister's children (a boy and a girl - and a surprise co-star Bugsey - the google eyed Guinea Pig).  To entertain them, he dreams up elaborate bedtime stories, always casting himself as the hero.  However, he doesn't believe he ever has a happy ending in his life and this is usually reflected in his story.

The children usually are not totally “content” with those unhappy or less than satisfying (according to bedtime story tradition) endings to the stories and so, add ideas of their own about what should happen next or how it should end.  These reflect some of the openness to unexpected possibility that children have.  And something begins to happen to Sandler's life.  These nighttime fantasies become his daytime realities.

The twist is that the realities unfold naturally, not the way the bedtime story would have led him to believe.  I realized at the end of the movie (it is delightful, regardless of your age - young and old will enjoy it) that it reflects my concept of metaphysics.

It is placing an “idea” into conscious imagination and then watching the Law of Attraction or Cause and Effect actually manifest it.  It is the same kind of natural unfolding, and “surprise” or unpredictability, that I find for myself in Living Metaphysics in my own life.  It is why I continue to believe …

Deb

Re: Bedtime Stories

This is such a delightful juxtaposition of your family life with that of a “fictional” hero, Deb. I say “fictional” because in a way, I wonder if the story is also archetypical. It seems like a very deep strain in human life: of the purity and boundless optimism of the child coming through to the grown up who has perhaps just a veneer of cynicism.

Cynicism often seems  more realistic, and yet the universal appeal, as you mention, of stories such as this one reveals that it may just be skin deep.

Just as the illusion of the ego [that ego  is all], perhaps cynical or world-weary realism is also just an illusion that adults portray, to show that they are 'all growed up'?!

Thank you for opening a window into this delightful vignette.

Re: Bedtime Stories

I was thinking about this concept of learning from our children just today. I have enjoyed so much these last few months watching my 7 yr old daughter playing in the backyard, so free and not self-conscious in the least, but entrenched in the very active play of imagining. For her, anything is possible! I then began thinking about my own self at that age and what I used to play. I was often alone, that I remember, and my imagination was such that I often couldn't distinguish between my own world and the world I was 'supposed' to be living in. Magic happened for me every day on every level.  I only got confused when I was faced with 'this reality'.
And, I realized that, somewhere along the road of growing up, I lost that sense of creative play. I lost that other world, and yet it took me years & years to fully 'integrate' into the accepted world we live in. Most of my school years were simply trying to figure out Why I was in school & just what was I supposed to be learning, or Why I had to learn things that didn't make much sense to me on a gut level. Playing in my world just made more sense to me. I guess my biggest question to myself now is Why? Not why did it happen or how, but Why can't we hold on to that unique way a child has of seeing the world through whatever lense they choose. They are so willing to allow unreality and magic into their lives, they instinctually have a faith in the unseen & unknown, and it seems all of our social systems are geared toward breaking this down - teaching them responsibility and structure and work ethic (not that these things are horrible, by any means) - but, why does this have to be an either or situation?
I love playing a game of What If… or Imagine If? What if we were all taught from infancy that the world is what you create, that your wild imagination could actually affect change in the world around you? Would we all have a more real and deep connection to our spirituality? Could we actually focus our intent on things that we believe deeply should exist in our world, like comfort and joy and peace and happiness and abundance? Could this be a way to accelerate our consciousness levels for the entire planet? Or is all of this delusional?
I know a lot of these questions seem really far out there, but sometimes it just seems that the kids are wise beyond their years simply for being naive about our very greedy, materialistic and political reality. It makes me think that the phrase “And a child shall lead them” has much more weight and complexity than we ever guess. My goal this year is to learn how to play again and recapture the imagination I had at 5 years old. In this, I hope to learn how to create a new world for myself and those I love.

Re: Bedtime Stories

The London College of Spirituality just sent out the latest issue of
their emag, Voyager Growth, with an article I wrote about Awakening
your Power to Manifest Abundance.  In it, I talk quite a bit about how open and free we were as children.  Many of us shut this down when we become teenagers only to realize much later in life what a mistake that was.  You can find the full article here.


Blessings!

-yvette

Re: Bedtime Stories

Thank you, Yvette, for sharing this link with us here.

Deb

Re: Bedtime Stories

Sherart,

We may not be able to “undo” completely the obstacles placed in the way of our imaginations when we were growing up but two things come to my mind -

[a]  We can allow for more “possibility” within ourselves to believe in the non-physical world (if you have not seen this movie, please watch it and discuss it with your daughter)

[b]  We can “believe” in our children's worlds; when they describe them to us.  That is what I do with my children.  I never dis-believe their imaginary (to me) worlds.  I remember my son's story about Sammie, who he found in a tree, who looked like him but was a year older and lived in England.  I said to him, maybe someday you will actually meet him.  Maybe you are aware of him in your mind.

It appears to me that the reason some of us did not feel we fit in (and I was certainly in that category) is that we come from a non-societal perspective but were told we should not be the way we really were.  Repression probably begins in us that way.  You are absolutely correct, it does not have to be either or.

It is time for those of us who are spiritually aware to begin to allow our children to be what they are naturally.  You already have found your own answer in your own daughter.  No, you are NOT delusional about this.

Well, to some, your questions would seem far out.  To me they make perfect and acceptable sense.  I am seeing such an increase in understanding in the “kids”, the younger generation, in those 20 somethings, and if you watch the children's movies it is there too.  Some adults who are spiritually aware are writing it into the kid's programs because the kid's don't reject it.  When I compare what is there for the children today, with what I had in the late 1950's and early 1960's, there isn't any comparison possible.  They are different paradigms.

The young people are “wise beyond their years”.  You are wise to recognize that.  “And a little child shall lead them.”  Hmmmm.  Would you believe that popped into my mind BEFORE I read your words?  It did.  I am not good at playing, though my children push me ever to.  My husband is ever my example in that regard and I do grow more playful as the years pass.

I have every confidence that you will succeed in your goals; because the understanding to do so, is already present in you.

Deb

Re: Bedtime Stories

In “The Uses of Enchantment”, Bruno Bettelheim says ” For a story to truly to hold a child's attention, it must entertain him and arouse his curiosity, but to enrich his life, it must stimulate his imagination: help him to decelop his intilect and to clarify his emotions; to be attuned to his anxieties & Aspirations; give full recognition to his difficulties, while at the same time suggesting solutions to the problems which perturb him. In short, it must at one and the same timerelate to all aspects of his personality, and this, without ever belitteling, but, on the contrary, giving full credence to the seriousness of the childs predicaments, while simultaneously promoting confidence in himself and in his future”