Before writing, relax into your chair. Take some cleansing and refreshing breaths.

Breathe in deeply, releasing and relaxing as you breathe out. Letting go.

Letting your mind relax. Settle into your chair. Nothing for you to do. Nowhere for you to be, except here.

Letting your mind drift. Relaxed. Comfortable.

Go back to a time when you were little . . .  6 or 7 or 9, 11 years old.

Go back to a time when you played with toys. Maybe store-bought toys. Maybe things you created or someone created for you: Blanket forts, or real wood forts, dress-up, Cootie Catchers, cutting white paper into snowflakes.

Maybe you yearned for toys advertised on TV or in the Sears catalogue. Toys your friends had, and you didn’t.

A time when your eyes took in the delights of bright, shiny toys.

Take a deep breath in as you remember. 

Maybe your yearnings weren’t for toys. Maybe your wishes were something else.

Take a deep breath in. Feel your breath go past your lungs, past your chest, into your belly.

What did you want as a child?

A certain toy? Did you get it?

Or:

Imagine you are 6 or 10 years old, how would you finish this sentence start: All I want is . .