Sweet Imagination

I am mom to two boys.  One is already an adult at the age of 20 and the other is soon to be an adult at nearly 17.  Its been a long time since I experienced the sweetly innocent imagination of a child, but this week I smiled and found myself inspired by just that.

One of my cousins Sam, on my dads side, has two very beautiful children. Her youngest, a little girl named Charlie (after my grandfather Charlie).  To see the pictures of Charlie and her brother Gavin are so much fun.  You can tell that they enjoy life and their mom delights in her role as their loving and nurturing caregiver. This week the following story was posted on Facebook and it brightened my day:

 

On our way home, at Detroit Wayne airport, we were walking to our gate. As we are doing so Charlie stops and goes, "uh", and refuses to move, staring at the floor. I ask her what she's doing. She replies, "peter pan found Charlie. I love him"

You see, what was happening was due to the lighting in that area, multiple shadows of herself were being cast on the ground at her feet. She legitimately believed one was hers, the other peter pans, which she then pointed out to me. Oh the minds of little children. Thank you Sam and my Disney obsession for giving us moments such as this.

 

What is more amazing than the ability to believe? I dare say...NOTHING.  Sweet Charlie saw that shadow and without hesitation or doubt simply BELIEVED.   She knew in her heart that she only had 1 shadow and therefore the second was Peter Pan and he was with her and she loved him.  Simple and sweet, unfettered innocence.

I miss the days of imagination and whimsy in my children, but even more, in myself.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all stop, every so often, and just enjoy and appreciate the imaginative and whimsical world around us?  Throw off the weight of bills and taxes, work and health issues. Get rid of the newspaper headlines and nightly news reporting on the travesties taking place all around the world. Just give in to that side of ourselves we lost somewhere around middle childhood.

I can't exactly remember when I lost the ability to immerse myself in imagination, nor can I remember at what point my own children shifted. What I do know. is that at some point the ability to simply believe in the unbelievable vanished and everything had to be explained with logic and reason.

Well I say pffft, and pish posh to all that. I want to go back under the veil and into a world where anything is possible if you just believe.  I know, reality dictates I must pay the rent and the electricity, and I have always been responsible, but at the end of the day when all is taken care of, I am checking out and you can find me once again in Neverland. See you there.