Building Castles in The Air

We have a natural tendency to be wide, to be imaginative, and to be open.

Growing up, we had very farfetched thoughts, thoughts which were most
times seen as laughable, impossible, and sometimes punishable. It is in us to
think of building our castles in the air, but most times these commendable
inborn characteristics are silenced by the world around us. We get criticized for
talking about our supposedly ludicrous thoughts and ideas, we get criticized
when we share our outlandish plans and proposed methods, we get criticized
when we talk about building castles in the air, and we get criticized by people
even when they see us already building castles in the air; they say, “stop
building castles in the air”, and most times we fall back to the ground where
there isn’t enough landmass to accommodate the sizes of our structures.
Growing up I liked building houses with my feet as a mold, and building roads
and bridges. One beauty about this fun activity was that I could build my own
world – even though it was barely as large as a tennis table. From childhood I
had understood that structures couldn’t be suspended in the air; and in fact, I
never attempted building one of those my worlds in the air. But what if I had
started something and it had stayed long enough for someone to talk me out
of the impossibility of building in the air?

Amazingly, something fascinating about this saying is that it is just as much an

encouragement as it is a discouragement, perhaps even more. It shows that a
building has started; perhaps a brick has been laid, and has remained
suspended in the air long enough to be seen and discouraged. If you can think
it, you can achieve it; if you can start it, you can accomplish it, if you can lay a
brick in the air, you can build the castle; first, just think it and believe; you’d
put the pillars when it becomes more needed.
As we step into a new year, we need to rejuvenate our natural selves, that
child in us, that unaltered mind, that thinker, that dreamer, that builder, that
person who sees possibilities in all circumstances. We need to head into this
year with all our plans laid out, equipped with all the lessons learnt from last
year and with all the hopes for the year ahead, ready to make change in our
world, ready to build, in any and every situation.