“Benjamin! Benjamin!” said Benjamin’s teacher, “are you paying attention to me? Did you hear a word I said? I’m trying to teach you arithmetic and you’re looking out the window daydreaming. You’ll turn into a balloon and float away if you don’t learn to keep your feet on the ground.” All the kids laughed.
“Benjamin! Benjamin!” said Billy during recess, “you’ll turn into a balloon and float away! You’re already a balloon!” Then Billy and the other kids began to chant–
BENJAMIN’S A BALLOON!
BENJAMIN’S A BALLOsON!
BENJAMIN’S A BALLOON!
At home Benjamin’s mother said, “Your teacher called today. She said you’re always daydreaming and don’t pay attention in class.”
After supper Benjamin’s father said, “What’s this I hear about your daydreaming? Have you been wasting time again?”
Benjamin was miserable. “Why can’t I pay attention? Why am I always daydreaming? What’s wrong with me?” Benjamin could just see himself as a big kid, still looking out the window in school–and he looked like a balloon! Instead of ordinary legs, his legs were joined together like the bottom of a balloon and were tied to a string on his desk. He started to float off his chair. The window was open and the wind blew him back and forth on the string. The string got longer and longer. And suddenly the string came loose and he blew out the window and up and up–
“Benjamin…Benjamin,” said a soft voice. “Are you all right?”
It was his grandfather.
“Oh, grampa. Oh, grampa, what am I going to do? What’s wrong with me? I don’t pay attention in class. I daydream all the time. The kids make fun of me. Everybody’s mad at me.”
“Hmm,” said grandfather. “You daydream, do you?”
“Yes, grampa.”
“You daydream a lot, do you?”
“Yes, grampa.”
“Do you daydream well, Benjamin?”
“Well, grampa?”
“Yes, Benjamin. Do you do a good job of it?”
“Gee, I don’t know, grampa. I just daydream.”
“Do you know what daydreaming is, Benjamin?”
“I think so, grampa. It’s when I see pictures and stories in my head.”
“That’s right, Benjamin, daydreaming is seeing inside your head. It’s a special kind of seeing, and I want you to do it well. I want you to be able to see with the eyes that are inside your head just as well as you see with the eyes that are on the outside of your head.”
“How do I learn to do that, grampa?”
“You learn by practicing! Just the way you learn to read or to play ball or to swim. You practice.”
“How do I practice daydreaming, grampa?”
“You’re already doing it one way, Benjamin. You do it every night when your mother or your father tells you a story. When you hear that story and imagine what’s happening in that story, you’re practicing your daydreaming. And when you listen to a story in church or at school, you’re practicing your daydreaming. It’s good for you. You need lots of good stories to practice with and learn from.”
“Is that all, grampa?”
“No, Benjamin. But that’s a beginning. There are many things you need to learn about daydreaming. The most important one is how to pray your daydreams.”
“How do I do that, grampa?”
“Remember when you prayed to Jesus to send you a protector and discerner, and he sent you Uriel the 23rd?”
“Oh yes, grampa. I remember that! And Uriel the 23rd protected me from the GRMPF and helped me discern whether the GRMPF was an outcast or an enemy, and I hugged the GRMPF, and the GRMPF turned out to be my new friend, Benoni! Oh yes, grampa, I remember!”
“That’s a way of doing it, Benjamin. You just start to talk to God and ask him for help, and he’ll help you with your daydream.”
“It sure was a lot of fun, grampa, even if it was kind of scary. I like Uriel the 23rd and Benoni.”
“Good, Benjamin. Now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to practice two things: Noticing and Praying. First, you should start trying to notice when you’re daydreaming, and then during the daydream you should start asking God to help you with it. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try, grampa.”
And so Benjamin went into training. He began to practice Noticing and Praying, which led to many adventures, which someday I should tell you.