Leap 30 - A World of Pure Imagination

Open an imaginary door.  What do you see?

The door itself is a bit on the small side for an average person but as it is my imaginary door it is just right for me.  Looping, ivy like scroll-work lines the edge of the door, gold worked in the crevasses, making the creamy, whitewashed wood glow.  It is a rounded affair, fatter on the top than it's slender, squared bottom.  The lower two thirds of the door is partitioned into four even cells, each again lined with gilt.  At the top of the door is a half circle, like the sun bursting from a horizon level with my shoulders, but in shades of beautiful meadow green glass, at once hazy and clear, bubbles suspended in its surface.  I reach my right hand to its scrolled knob and without a hitch the door releases, swinging silently away from me.  I push it with my left to continue its swing and take in the lush, rolling, grass covered hills before me.  The door and the homey, fire warmed room I have just left fade from memory and existence as I breath in the essence of this new place, drinking in the trees that dot the hills, here at the top of knoll, here in a dell, there on the side of a gentle slope.  There are a few animals and I can see they are all at peace.  Deer and a maned lion wander past.  These are the pastures of Aslan, the door of a hobbit hole.  This is a place of classic authors and yet wholly my own.  The grass is velvet soft on my bare feet as I wander; the sun heats the top of my head and the back of my neck but the warm, slight breeze keeps it from becoming too hot.  A few clouds dot the sky that is a clear, deep blue, the likes of which can be seen in Idaho or on mountains in Oregon.  Coming to a giant evergreen at the peak of a hill I stop and settle my skirts around me as I sit.  All that would complete this idyllic scene would be a book and, looking to my left, I find a well thumbed tome, it's green cover and brown binding a familiar friend as I lean against the tree trunk, serenaded by tiny birds conversing in the branches above.

When my family went to the beach in mid November I was desperate for inspiration so I thumbed through this book (The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration by Monica Wood) at one of the outlet stores.  I decided I liked enough of the bits of advice and inspiration to buy it ... and then didn't use it.  Well, I'm fixing that now.  I sat down at the library today, turned to the first bit of inspiration and the prose above popped out (after a bit of editing during transcription to digital form).
As I first began writing I thought the scene beyond the door was going to be of a planet with deserted spires, looming moons, glittering stars and the occasional alien, but then I decided to describe the door first and a whole different world was revealed.  Maybe I'll stop by that place next time.  :)  Sounds like it sure could be fun!
The title comes from the song "Pure Imagination", which I always heard while growing up on Kenny Loggins' Return to Pooh Corner album, but evidently actually comes from the first Willy Wonka movie with Gene Wilder.