The Power of Childish Dreams

When did you last dare to dream the impossible?

Adults are very aware of what is possible and what is not. It kind of sucks. Practicality is drilled into us, and that matters. It helps us navigate the day to day, but when we start to look at the big picture, it limits us.

For the guidebook to my bigger and brighter version of the Life Line Tarot, Color Outside the Lines, I’ve been exploring various forms of inner child work. And it’s helped me realize how much power there is in the naïveté of childhood. It opens us up to wonder. It makes us curious. And it allows us to believe in the openness of the future.

So let’s go back in time for a minute. Don’t worry: it’s not hard. Just suspend your disbelief.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Think back to a fond memory from childhood. Recall or imagine the feeling of the space around you: the weather, the furnishings, the scents, the play of light and colors, and your feelings. If you’re in adult mode, and you feel awkward while simultaneously being delighted by whatever is happening around you, that’s okay. You’re halfway there. Note the awkwardness or discomfort or disbelief and set it aside. It will be there when you get back if you need it later.

Once you feel that you are back in that moment, well and truly “there,” imagine someone asking you what you would like to be when you grow up.

What does your child self say?

How does your adult self feel about the answer?

If, like me, you’ve been pretty rooted in your pragmatic adult self, you may want to teach your younger self to think differently, to answer more logically, or to make more practical choices, or to start preparing for the hardships of life. I get it. I wanted impossible things as a child (like actually not possible, not just highly improbable), and I’m pretty Saturnian now. But you don’t need to play that role right now.

Instead, I want you to listen to your past self. What in your child self’s response is still true to you today? Don’t worry about the ugly realities right now. We do that all the time. Put it aside.

For example, if your child self says they want to be a pilot, and that makes you think about not having perfect vision or not being tall enough or the carbon footprint of air travel, thank your rational adult self for that perspective and set those limiting views aside for now. 

Talk to your child self and ask them why they want that future for themself. Listen to yourself with love, compassion, and the willingness to believe that the impossible is possible with the right frame of reference. That’s right. You don’t have to give up your adult brain to appreciate the surprisingly wise ignorance of youth. Ask for the reasons why and see how those ideas fit within your life, past and present. What part of that have you carried with you? 

More importantly, what can you carry into the future?

Visiting the past—what I call reading the River of Time—is all well and good for a little inner tourism, but what you experience doesn’t have to remain stuck in the past. Let your child self teach your adult self, just as you would let your ancestors or past lives help you grow. Inner child work is a two-way street. You may need to heal the Wounded Child aspect of your Inner Child. But the Magical Child within you might have some healing to offer your adult self.

So what did you want to be then? How does that help you understand who you can be now?

Don’t be afraid to be literal if it works. But your child self’s answer might require translation through metaphor or stripping down to its base parts.

To give you an example, my desire to be a Broadway star as a child (not the impossible thing, just improbable) wasn’t really about Broadway. It was about getting to be creative and make a living by doing something I love. It was about delighting others and helping them tune into their emotions, all of them. Some aspects of Broadway are unimportant or downright undesirable to me now while others do not seem worth the trade-offs to my “wiser” adult self. But that outlandish dream, one that I have no interest in pursuing now, still helps me see important patterns to what matters to me as a person and as a professional.

May your own adventures back in time prove so fruitful.