Have you ever found yourself staring into space, or perhaps through the very page you meant to be reading a foot in front of your face, just letting your imagination take over and play a movie in your head of what may be?
Have you ever found yourself dreaming with your eyes open, playing a part in some other story than the one you're existing in presently?
Have you ever found yourself staring through the person you were conversing with (what seemed like seconds ago), not because what they were saying wasn't holding your interest, but because your attention was hijacked by another thought of else-what or elsewhere?
If so, you my friend, are a daydreamer.
We're a funny sort, the kind that many mistake for sufferers of attention deficit -- and who knows, maybe we are -- but that is a surface oversimplification of our nature. We have the ability to live the life in front of us as well as create the life of our wildest desires if we so choose (and often if we don't). We often have the ability to see endless possibilities in response to minor happenings in our days, and are content in getting lost in the world behind our eyes for a little (or a long) while.
I know, this seems as though our heads are stuck in the clouds and that we are naive, aloof, and unawares, but there's a beauty in the mind and the heart of a daydreamer. They are the keepers of the belief of infinite possibilities, and yet they constitute an ability to be blissfully occupied with a contented peace of mind as our thoughts quiet themselves for a while.
Commonly thought to be a waste of time - -and not to be confused with escapism -- I contend that some of the greatest thoughts, things, and persons were formed with a daydream. As Larry Niven says, "Everything starts as somebody's daydream".
Though it can often prove to be a great difficulty, as it's easy to blur the lines between imagining all of the possibilities for your life and letting yourself become discontented with the life immediately in front of you, it's ultimately a gift because we see stories where we look, and beauty where we see.
So friends, by all means, keep dreaming.