When I was young I can remember being really silly with my friend Juanita. We'd make up dumb words or phrases. We had a code language even where we'd put "sm" before every word (ie: smoo smou, smant smoo smow smith sme smoo sma smings?" = do you want to go with me to the swings?). We used to pretend we were on a deserted island while we both ate half a cantaloup with a spoon. We'd door-bell-ditch. We'd go romping in mud puddles after it rained. We'd dress up in bizarre outfits and do our hair crazy and let our imaginations take us wherever we wanted. We had pillow fights. We'd prank call people. We'd build forts out of blankets.
I've realized being a mom that I've completely lost my imagination. I have to really force myself to be silly for more than two minutes. I just don't know how to be really goofy. The things I used to find funny....I just don't find funny anymore. Some people might say "I've matured"..."I put away childish things."....
The problem is that my kids eat and breathe goofy. They thrive on silliness. From the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep they find a thousand things to laugh about. They are non-stop giggles and imagination. I want to be "one of them" but I don't know how. Omega invites me all the time, "Mom, do you want to play with us?" "Sure" I say, but then I don't know what to do. When I do try to make something up they tell me I should be doing something else. So, I default to just being the photographer.
I saw this picture on facebook and it was a good reminder to treasure each age and stage and moment of my children's life. They, like me, will grow up and won't be able to remember how silly and cute they were. They will forget how they said certain words and what kind of faces they made. But I don't want to forget.
So, here are some moments where I didn't know how to join them in their fun so I just took pictures :)
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| Omega got the courage to get her face wet in the bathtub and do funny things with her hair. |
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| If I could put Orion in gymnastics I would. This kid always wants to be doing flips or crawling like an animal or posing like a stink-bug. |
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| They got "married" (see Orion in his suit pants and Omega in her "wedding dress") I guess doing flips is part of the celebration process :) |
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| I had these mesh bags in the truck to dry my sunflowers and the kids turned them into an opportunity to make their faces distorted so they could laugh at each other. |
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| I'm driving along, coming back from the farm and I look over and think to myself, "my kids are hilarious. They look so retarded right now." |
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| They put all the pillows and stuffed animals under the kitchen table and camped out there for a while. |
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| In the bathtub Omega did Orion's hair and I got them to squish their cheeks together for a quick snap. Of course they have to make growling faces as if they are animals showing their teeth... ;) |
Jesus said, "Unless ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter in to the kingdom of heaven." I'm starting to think that heaven will be this much fun because everyone will love each other and delight in the simple pleasures and not be so stressed out that they can't find the energy or the creativity to play.
I was telling Joy that Orion likes to be silly just like Seth. I'm not sure Seth has anyone that he can be that silly with. Omega and Orion are fortunate that they have each other and no one else to distract or come in the middle of them all the time. They sure have great imaginations!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Joy will have more rest when Noah catches up to Seth's imaginative abilities and they can expend their energy together.
ReplyDeleteIt is of note that that uber-statesman of XX century scientific discovery, Albert Einstein, once said that it was largely thanks to his child-like imagination, rather than carefully reasoned thought or recourse to seasoned argument, that led him to eventually, as if by forethought, divine macro truths in physics and space-time that became the bedrock discoveries underlying nearly all modern technological knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThis really expands our understanding of the Lord's statement you reference concerning children and their insouciant innocence. But also their ability to reverence the beauty of the holy, the sublime.
Which makes me wonder out loud, before the Almighty beckoned the starry heavens ex-nihilo, did he foresee the effervescent wonder of the child's mind He would later derivatively create?
I always enjoy your posts. Despite your arguments to the contrary, do keep writing out your imaginative mind.
Thanks "unknown" person :) You have a big vocabulary!
DeleteMade up languages: check. Ever heard of "dub-speak"? (Or whatever it's called?) Your sample sentence would go like this: "Dub-ou yub-ou wub-ant tub-o gub-o tub-o the-buh swa-bings?" You insert "ub" into every syllable. My sister and I used to talk that way as fast as we could. Good times.
ReplyDeleteI miss being silly, too! It's so frowned upon in adults, but I think that you can be silly without being an immature person. It's all about doing when/where it's appropriate.
Wow, never heard of dub-speak. Looks like a neat version of code language :)
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