Fantasy creatures really do exist, especially in the hearts and minds of young children and the young at heart. Frolicking unicorns, fierce fire-breathing dragons, and little lucky leprechauns with their elusive pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. In the fantasy realm and imagination of every small child they most certainly do exist.

The little girls who dream of riding on the bare back of her white unicorn, with ribbons flowing from her mane with the colors of the rainbow and the enticing smell of flowers in bloom. Oh yes, they exist. For the little boys who dream of being a great knight riding on the back of their fierce fire-breathing dragon slaying the evil of both the known world and the unknown world. Oh yes, they exist.

As a grown adult, you try to always remember that life does not have to be so gloom and doom all the time. Everything is in a crisis in this country; the environment, the housing market, health care, and our economy. Each and every day you are bombarded with negative ads and news reports. Every day you are faced with paying way too much at the gas pump and electric and gas bills that have sky-rocketed. Everyday you are faced with bill collectors or past due notices. Everyday you are bombarded with murders, rapes, and horrible car accidents on the news.

To watch children as they play and dream is the most refreshing and rejuvenating moment for most. My daughter loves unicorns and dragons. I encourage the imagination in my daughter and her vivid imagination explodes into the real world of misery. I love to read to my daughter about such mystical creatures because it allows her imagination to be free. People in the world today are way too eager to squash the imagination of small children in order to prepare them for reality. Reality comes soon enough and I say allow them to experience the magical world as long as they can.

As far as ghosts and spirits. Oh yes, they too exist. I have been teaching my daughter to not fear them but to accept them. I know this all sounds like lunacy, but please let me explain further. My dad passed away when my daughter was only 18 months old. After he passed I would catch her talking away with no one there. When I would ask her who she was talking to, she was quickly respond “PoPo”. That was her nickname for grandpa. It has been almost 7 years since my dad has passed, and a few months ago while getting ready for school, my daughter told me that she saw a tall man with a beard and glasses in a robe outside her bedroom door. She said she wasn’t afraid because she recognized him as “PoPo”.

I knew she was telling the truth because my dad was 6’4″ tall and he wore glasses and had a white, groomed beard. My daughter was only 18 months old when he passed and for her to describe him to a tee was incredible! My daughter proceeded to tell me that “PoPo” was there to look after her and take care of her and to chase away any monsters that may be hiding in her bedroom. I encourage that thought pattern because who are we to say that it is not true?

I would like to believe that mystical creatures, ghosts, and spirits exist. As long as we have an imagination and the willingness to believe, they will always exist in the hearts and imagination of all of us. I also believe that when a loved one passes from this earth, that their spirit remains to help guide us through this difficult life. Like a messenger from God. Our loved ones never really leave us, they are always here in our hearts, right next to the white unicorn and the fire-breathing dragon. Some day I will catch that little leprechaun with his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but until then I can always dream.