I recently came across a question/quote by Carl Jung that made me pause in my tracks: "What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits."

It immediately took me back to my childhood, when daydreaming filled much of my time. I would drift into elaborate inner worlds, imagining every detail so vividly that I could feel the emotions of my dreams coming true. I often joked that if someone paid me to dream, I’d be rich. Books, movies, and cultural imports only deepened those fantasies so much so that by the time I first arrived in New York City (where I live now), I already knew its sights, sounds, and streets in my imagination. Jung’s words resonated deeply, reminding me how childhood passions can reveal our truest pursuits.

Yet this reflection also made me realize how little I dream today. My father was a pro-dreamer, who swept his family up in his dreams, majority of which remained unrealized in his lifetime. It was emotionally turbulent to dream with him; I so badly wanted his dreams to come true, to be actionable. Except, they were not and it started to put me off dreaming. Then came the reality of adulthood where the responsibilities of making a living stripped away any whimsical fancies. When I participate in meditation circles or astrological rituals, I notice how difficult visualization has become.

Recently, a friend told me, “You look happy.” There are days when I do feel that way though happiness has never been my ultimate goal. What I long for is peace and contentment. More often, however, I feel at a loss. When life comes at me with another challenge, my first thought is: Here I go again. Do I have the strength to dream and rely on these dreams to make it through this time? Will I ever feel that sustainable expansiveness again, that childlike excitement about what’s possible?

Not long ago, I listened to an interview with Naomi Klein, the Canadian author, activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses and critiques of corporate globalization and capitalism. She spoke about how the unlikely coalition of powerful elites and the far right, particularly under the Trump administration is bound together by a shared vision of collapse, a dangerous belief in the inevitability of the world’s unraveling. Their power, she suggested, rests on betting against the future. To counter this, she argued, progressives must do something deceptively simple yet radical: unite around the act of believing in the world.

Her words immediately brought me back to Jung’s quote. Even in my own mission-driven work focused on social equity I notice how little true dreaming takes place. Without it, how can we imagine a different, better world? After all, our thoughts shape our reality.

And so I wonder: will I ever have the childlike freedom to dream without limits? To imagine so boldly, so beautifully, that I feel it in every cell of my being and believe, once again, that anything is possible? Perhaps dreaming is a skill that can be relearned. I am beginning with small practices, journaling, mindful visualization, as ways to open that door again.

With this, I extend an invitation to you: return to your own childhood. What made the hours pass like minutes for you? Perhaps if we each rekindle those lost sparks, we can revive the art of dreaming, not only for ourselves, but for the future we all share.