I don’t know about you, but my family looooves the holidays!
Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, whatever - We don’t mess around!!
My hubby is literally like Clark Griswold up on the roof every year, hanging all the lights, putting all the big inflatable things on the front lawn. We started doing it for the kids when they were little and it’s just been a family tradition ever since.
What’s really fun is that the neighbors get a kick out of our decorations, too!!! (Which you’ll see in just a sec --) We are totally that house with kids out front every Christmas taking selfies with our giant 20-ft Olaf!! It’s so fun. So, Halloween is around the corner which means we get to put our big guy Stanley out in front!! Stanley is our big inflatable dragon with big, flapping wings whose belly lights up at night. He’s pretty awesome. (See below!)
Meet Stanley!!
How he got his name is pretty cool, too -- a neighbor drove by the other day with his grandkids asking us where Stanley was! We were like, “who’s Stanley??” Turns out they had NAMED our big inflatable dragon Stanley and they took the long way home to come see him!! (Long story short, he’s out on the lawn now and my daughter’s making him a big “Hi, I’m Stanley!” sign for him on her Cricut…)
So, Stanley’s been out on the lawn for a few days, and the other day my husband noticed these blue little things laying around him.
He figured they were maybe some wrappers or something that got swept up on the lawn next to him, so he went to go pick them up.
He got closer and realized, these aren’t wrappers….They’re NERF DARTS!!! You know, the plastic Nerf guns with those little foam darts and rubber ends?
At first we were like, “how did these get here?!” And as I’m holding the Nerf dart in my hand I look up at Stanley I realize…. “Oh my GOSH. They’re SLAYING the dragon!!! The kids in my neighborhood are trying to SLAY the dragon with Nerf darts!!!” My hubby and I looked at each other and just started laughing. It was so cool to be in the mind of a child at that moment. I mean can you imagine?! Haha!! Kids are so amazing, right? They have such incredible imaginations… But it made me wonder… What happens to your imagination as we get older? What happened to YOUR imagination as you got older? When was the last time you thought about that? I mean, did your imagination actually fade away? Or does it just get stuffed away with all the to-do’s of adulthood, hidden behind the responsibilities of being a good mother? A good wife? A good friend? This story made me realize something somber: As adults, we just don’t give ourselves that time to imagine anymore. It seems like imagination is “just kid stuff”, you know? "What’s the point?" BUT IT’S NOT "kid stuff" to dream. The “point” IS to keep dreaming. Maybe our lives look a little different than they did when we were kids, but when YOU give yourself space and time to dream, you open your mind in new and creative ways, to new possibilities…. And if that's not enough reason, when YOU give yourself space to dream, you're actually showing your kids how to CONTINUE dreaming as they get older so they don’t lose that magical spark. Things like what I shared here, or those fun, creative things your kids or grandkids do are actually helping you by reminding you what it’s like to use your imagination. So, I’d love to know: What's one thing you've been imagining, something you've wanted but have been telling yourself, “I'm too old or like this is kid stuff” or, you know, “there’s no way this is possible for me”? Reply to this blog post and let me know!! What I will say is that, in my work, I see women every day just like you, bravely slaying their dragons - big and small. I also know that their dreams, just like yours, are trying to make their way to you all the time... You just gotta use a little imagination to put you in a place to receive it. P.S. If you're looking to slay some dragons click here to get all the details Here’s to slaying ALL your dragons,
Much love,
Laurie