A PICTURE SPEAKS A THOUSAND WORDS

Welcome to The Land of Legends and the Power of Imagination

There’s something about fairies and pixies that still fills me with the excitement of a child

Bienvenue au Pays des Legendes

Welcome to The Land of Legends!

If you’re anything like me and find yourself welcomed on the first day of your vacation by this sign, you will probably be turning cartwheels.

This kind of thing fills me with far more joy than any luxury cruise or 5-star resort could ever evoke in me. A campsite in central Brittany, northern France, beside a river and surrounded by forest and giant boulders had way more potential to tingle every one of my senses, and then some.

Fairies, pixies, leprechauns, deities of all kinds and the fables that live on for centuries— this is when I know I have found perfection.

Stories, stories, stories…

I thrive on stories of one kind or another. And, without stories to accompany everything in my life — and I mean everything — life can feel meaningless.

I see my entire life as a story playing out. Sometimes it’s filled with comedy sketches, other times it’s filled with serious, dramatic, or sad scenes. Whatever is happening, it forms part of the grand flow of the unfolding story of my life.

I am sure I am not alone in this, especially among a community of writers and readers.

We read to inspire more ideas, to tickle our creativity, and draw us into the magical world of imagination. And we write to pour out the endless chatter that we find there.

As a child, my signature stance would be sitting and gazing out of the window with a smile on my face. Wherever my mind had wandered, it would certainly make me smile.

I often struggled to concentrate in class and would easily fall behind on my work in classes such as English. The fact was that class was generally boring and my head would create much more interesting imaginary scenes that made me forget where I was and what I was doing.

And yet, when something we did in class inspired me, I would have the work done before everyone else, with top marks awarded. Despite my eyes glazing over regularly, when asked to produce a piece of creative writing, I would shock the teachers with what my mind conjured up.

I needed my imagination to be allowed to run at full capacity in order to feel fulfilled. For me, it’s all or nothing.

Imagination enriches our world

“Get with reality!”

How many times have I heard that?

The thing is that reality is not just something that happens outside of our influence. And, if what we see around us — the reality that faces us — isn’t to our liking, we have the power of our imaginations to imagine something different.

And guess what?

People are turning their imagined realities into their actual realities. Because they can!

“Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future.” — Rob Hopkins, From What if to What is

Imagination has the power to light up our passions, to ignite our creativity and stimulate us into action. This is how we change the status quo. This is how we illustrate our beliefs and our morals, and this is how we delight those around us.

Without imagination, life would be extremely dull. And stories are born of the imagination.

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview for life’s coming attractions.” — Albert Einstein

Back to that holiday in France beside the river, surrounded by forest and mystical rock-formations…

The forest was Huelgoat forest, Breton for “tall wood”. The river was la Rivière d’Argent — the silver river — although it looked positively gold to me with the sunshine reflecting on the water as it flowed over an orangey silt river bed.

There were caves, standing stones, and giant boulders that almost appeared to be placed intentionally by a force greater than ourselves. And, of course, the stories behind these boulders and standing stones were steeped in magical powers and moral messages.

There were stories that involved King Arthur, as well as important figures from Christianity, such as The Virgin Mary and the devil. But, it’s the literary creation of French Renaissance Author, François Rabelais, the giant, Gargantua, who is remembered in the boulders.

According to legend, when Gargantua was passing through the region, he requested hospitality from the forest’s inhabitants. Furious when all he received was a buckwheat gruel, he made his way to Léon. In revenge, he threw all the rocks he found on his way to the site of the current chaos. What a commotion! — From Brittany Tourism.

There are fairy hideouts in the woods, enormous boulders with tiny paths winding between them, and a mushroom-shaped formation.

And, no surprises, we played fairies and pixies the whole time we were here.

I thrive on stories and legends of old, woven into the history of the land.

In India I was far more content at an ancient temple, examining the depictions from the Hindu epic The Ramaya, engraved into the stones of the temple, and soaking up the energy of the many souls that had passed by here, than lying on a beach.

In France, I preferred to walk the routes of the pilgrims of old, passing the pagan standing stones and soak up the blessings that fables of old say that they bestow.

And, here in England, I would rather explore the land in my own neighbourhood of Devon and Cornwall, alive in the knowledge of stories that have been told for centuries. Stories that give meaning to the shape of the land, the ancient wells found among old ruins, and the journeys of the many who have passed through these lands.

My spirits are kept high in the knowledge that there are people who have walked these paths before, lived on these pieces of land, and left a tiny piece of their soul and their story.

It is not born in my imagination but it helps to feed my excitement for being, seeing and experiencing. These stories told around the hearth have lasted lifetimes, because imaginations kept imagining.

Thanks to Gaurav Jain for the prompt, A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

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