Daydreaming

The lower Southfork on a beautiful September day...

I have been spending a lot of time the past few weeks sitting by the river, or rocking back and forth in my porch swing, enjoying the beautiful Fall weather.  I take books, I thumb through magazines...but mostly I just, well...spend time daydreaming.

I was reading an article lately about the restoration of the gardens of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.  It seems that he was a compulsive  note taker and sketcher.  Whatever was on his mind he recorded it, especially in regard to his massive gardens.  You would have thought that the notes would have been a help to the restoration, but in fact they were almost a hindrance.  It seems that Jefferson had many ideas and daydreams, and while he recorded his ideas, it was hard for the researchers to separate the actual gardens from the gardens of his daydreams. 

I remember reading somewhere in the Bible about God saying that his people were perishing for lack of vision...sorry I can't recall the exact text or context, but the words 'perish for lack of vision' stuck with me.  Jefferson had vision...he shot high.  If only a small portion of his daydreams were realized, think of all that he accomplished.  He was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom.  He was founder of the University of Virginia, ambassador and Secretary of State, Vice President and President of the United States.  He was instrumental in obtaining the Louisiana Territory, and getting Congress to fund the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  He was a self taught architect, a horticulturist, and an inventor (did you know that he invented the first copy machine, the dumbwaiter, some sort of plow, automatic doors...the list goes on and on).  And yet, only a portion of his daydreams were actually realized.

It seems to me that in order for Jefferson to accomplish all that he accomplished in his lifetime, he would have had to set aside time to think...to ponder...to pray.  He took the time to daydream.

So let's not feel guilty about sitting watching the river flow when there is so much to do, or spending time rocking in the rocking chair or porch swing...daydreaming is important business!  Just look at what it did for Thomas Jefferson!  DLB