Music and Imagination

I was swinging and I wondered if Ireland's wilderness' look anything similar to the hills in the park. I thought of the movie "P.S. I Love You" and how he has fallen in love with her almost immediately. How sweet.

"I'll be a while...ain't goin' no where, said I'll be a while..."

After I jumped off the swing I walked toward the biggest hill in the park. It didn't take long to reach the top


"We kissed that night before I left, still now it was something I could never forget..."

Once on top I looked over the park and was delighted to realize how high up I really was. The wind started to blow my hair around and it was a moving feeling.

"Looking at all or nothing, babe it's you and I...I know that I'm good for something, so let's go give it a try..."

I decided to take a stroll over the others hills and followed a path others had made in the grass over time.


"Did you open the shop? Yes. Are you Joe? Yea. You are Joe! The one and only! The one and only Joe..."

I decided to turn back toward the biggest hill. Where to now?, I thought. Oh!, the slide, yes. Toward the slide I made my way.


"It's no good, no good...to be, to be...alone....alooone..."

I climbed the ladder and looked over the park and from where I had just come. I recalled the last time I had seated myself at the top of this ladder and the picture I had taken of the ground below with my cell phone then.


"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality..."

Perhaps Rik was right; all the Queen voices are studio-birthed.
I got a second shot of the ground below, but this time with my rainbow converse peeking from the bottom of the photo. I settled there for a little bit, gazing patiently over the park, but eventually climbed back down to make my way over the the jungle gym.


"Mama! Oooooh! I don't wanna die! I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all!"

I thought of work and of my day. I had not too long before been at evening service in the church I grew up in and decided to visit this park. It had been a while. I reached the jungle gym.

"I see a little silhouetto of a man, scaramouche`! Scaramouche`! Will you do the Fandango!"

I faced the biggest hill again. I wondered if there is an occult meaning in the words I was hearing. It wouldn't be the first time I had thought of it.

"So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die?"

How wonderful would it be, I began thinking if my band made it a point to take on huge songs to cover that no one else touched. But would it be wise?, after all creating original music is a priority now.


"Nothing really matters...to me...anyway the wind blows..."

I skipped over a few tracks on my iPod and hopped down from the jungle gym. The biggest hill made me feel nice, I'd like to try it again. But then, no I thought. I've been there. I should go somewhere I haven't been.


"Ooo, ooo, oooo. Ooo, ooo, oooo. Ooo, ooo, ooooOOoo..."

An orchestra played Epona's Song from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and I thought of Malon, how she said her mother had composed the tune. Then I thought of the game on a larger scale, how I missed it and how my outlook on my imagination would be different if I hadn't discovered the land of Hyrule, and how even as a young adult...I still wish I could somehow go there...


"Oo-oo-oo-oo-ooOOoo-OOooooOOoooo"

I was then coming upon the ditch I had so often driven by and told myself I would venture around some day and yes, there I was. I looked down as the ditch narrowed to the concrete stream and, how ironic! that I began to see the river entrance leading to Zora's Domain in Hyrule Field. It took me a while to figure that part out..

"Praise to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...Our God and our King, to Him we will sing..."

I found a side walk and thought how interesting it was that the city had placed a former walking space near a ditch!, how unexpected! But as I continued on I noticed that this drainage ditch was a little different from others. I followed the concrete path and crossed the bridge it made there to connect the two sides over the water. I wished it had been raining so the water would have been higher. In my imagination it was flowing freely, I was dressed as a maiden, and I wasn't alone.


"Children of God, sing your song and rejoice! For the love that He has given us all!"

I wanted to fly. I felt God's Spirit moving around me as I ventured. Nothing mattered. Nothing needed to matter. I was just going on a walk. He and I were walking along.
The side walk made another connection, because I was now at a three-way point in the ditch. I crossed this second foot bridge.


"Great is the love that the Father has given us...He has delivered us...He has delivered us!"

I came to this area that gave me a wonderful thought; When I have children I will say "What do you see here?" and when they say "We see a ditch." I will say "I see a river. Don't you see a river here?" I will speak their language or I will teach them my own.


"We are the saints, we are the children, we've been redeemed, we've been forgiven..."

I followed the path back the way I came.


"Wandering child, so lost, so helpless. Yearning for my guidance..."

I thought of the only person I could then. For once it wasn't an unpleasant thought. Mostly I was just over whelmed with the rediscovery of my imagination although I do miss the opera. Raul was about to fight the Phantom when suddenly--


"Lovers in the long grass, look above them, only they can see where the clouds are going..."

Ah, yes. I can never say no to Enya while she so captures my heart, but instead "not now".
I saw another hill I hadn't yet climbed, skipped over a few tracks, and began walking toward it.


".........Don't... Stop..."

I returned to the ditch and walked alongside it going the opposite direction. I again wished it had been raining at least before I had gotten here. But a more predominate thought was this: What a nice place to walk with my love some day.
The further I walked I began to feel God's Spirit encouraging me to keep imagining things. So I began to look anywhere and ask myself "What do you see?"

"So the world goes round and round with all you ever knew. They say the sky high above is Caribbean blue..."

The atmosphere had become much dimmer since the time I arrived at the park and I knew it would be time to leave soon. When I walked through a small tunnel where the ditch turned a different direction I found myself walking through a French or Italian city passage way. I thought I would have a way out, but the tall grass there encouraged me to think that turning back might be a more wise idea.
Eventually I made my way up above the ditch.

"Angel eyes, I really love you so...angel eyes, I'll never let you go...because I love you, my darling angel 
eyes..."

That would be nice to hear. But just then the orchestra strings brought in the Hyrule Field Theme and again I felt that familiar heart leap-drop of wishing I could go back, go there, or both. Maybe I should ask for a Nintendo 64 controller for my birthday so I can play my favorite game again some day.
I ended my journey on the swing beside the one I began my even with and facing the opposite side of the park. "I don't like facing this side," I told myself. But I felt God saying "Try it out. Use what you see. What do you really see?"


"Jesus...worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and man..."

I saw four trees with some space between them. It became a clearing where two lovers stood.


"-and all the world will praise Your great Name...Oh, You're great Name..."

Then the clearing became the Garden of Gethsemine.
I saw a circle in the ground made up of concrete. I'm not sure what it was before, but I saw a medieval shooting range for archers.


"Redeemer, my Healer, You are mighty! My Savior, Defender, You are my King..."

As the song was coming to a close I knew it was time I headed home. Before I touched the ground I thought when I have children and they are old enough to speak their minds clearly and I see them playing I will ask them "What do you see? Tell me what you see in your head right now." I recalled memories of my own childhood when I saw an enchanted place, but I knew I couldn't share it with anyone and no one asked." Maybe if my mother had joined me in the rain gutter when I played with my toys I would have been able to feel that someone saw what I could see in my head... I stopped the swing and began walking toward my car.


"C'mon on, Barbie, let's go party! I'm a Barbie Girl in a Barbie world...Life in plastic, it's fantastic!"

- Desiree` Magee