"THE IMAGINEERING HAT"

"THE IMAGINEERING HAT"

    As we get older, we tend to search for what is missing in our lives. We long to recapture the youthful dreams and imagination we had as a child. We ask ourselves how we can get our youth back.

    My own search began in my mid thirties. To my surprise, the rediscovery of my childhood imagination came in the form of an ordinary hat.

 * * * * *

    The hat hung lifeless on the display rack. I recognized the hat as a replica of the hat worn my Jane in the animated movie Tarzan. With its weave of dried grasses and a black bow, the hat had suddenly appeared out of the world of animation and into the real world. I wondered if the hat and I could bring Jane's adventures to life.

    With hat in hand I made my purchase. I stepped outside the shop and adjusted the hat on my head.

    An imaginary world came to life.

    Thoughts of wild adventures from long forgotten dreams began to resurface. Wild exploits on jungle safaris and raft trips down seltzer-foamed rapids became a reality in my mind. The sweltering humidity of the jungle and the churning mist from the rapids moistened my forehead.

    I reached up to wipe off the droplets, my finger brushing the course hat brim. The texture of the brim turned into a jungle vine. As I closed my eyes, I swung on draping vines from one canopy of trees to another, the long, stringy vine gripped between my fingers.

    With eyes still closed, my ears slightly covered by the hat's brim, I heard unfamiliar sounds. The repetitive call of jungle birds, the thud of a gorilla thumping his chest, the chimpanzees claiming their territory in audible chatter made my heart pound.

    I removed the hat, opened my eyes and examined the weave of the reeds and grasses used in the hats creation. The pattern of the weave, tight and sturdy, would detour insects and protect my head from the sun.

    My nose caught an aroma of dried grasses from the hat when a slight breeze brushed by us. The smell of vegetation warmed by the sun made me know my imagination was in the middle of it's created jungle.

    The menagerie of trees, foliage and flowers had blended in a natural and harmonious way. Their fragrances, a mixture of Gardenia, mosses and musky air, had exposed a perfect experiment courtesy of nature's genius. This jungle had been carefully prepared just for me by my imagination.

    The sleepy sedative of jungle humidity, once again created by my imagination, lulled me toward an imaganary hammock tied between two palm trees. I rested there until time and reality summoned me back. Reality shook me awake.

* * * * *

    Today I take wishful glances at the hat as it hangs prominently in my kitchen. I wash the dishes, feed the cat and go back to the everyday chores of a woman.

    I cherish the fantasies of my imagination. I know these adventures are accessible anytime I need a journey to refresh childhood magic, and a break from real life.

    The adventures are always there, imagnineered by my hat.