these hands

asher's imaginative hands holding a "big...BIG spider"!

It seems that there has been an explosion of creative energy inside the mind and heart of this little boy in my life. Every day brings about new adventures and excursions. Walks are full of conversations about the stars and the moon and owls and witches. There is an hourly ritual of climbing all the furniture in order to avoid falling in the "river" that flows freely through our living room. We don't want to fall in...because of course there are "shark-tooths" in the water...and we never remember to wear our wings (water wings)...so we very carefully climb from couch to dresser back to couch to chair. If there happens to be a little mishap, Asher is quick to call for mama, and I come and save him from the rapids and sharks. All of the streets have become rivers and we travel around in our very own "boat"...passing many other "boats" along the way...and occasionally we will come upon a SHIP (a diesel) which is traveling our same path that day. I love listening to his stories and hearing a bit of the magic reeling around in his head. He blows imaginary bubbles into the air so that Journey and I can catch them and play in their soapiness. He mimics noises of owls and dinosaurs and tigers and dragons...and quickly takes a gasp while asking "WAS AT, MAMA?". We then will often run to safety under the sheets of whichever bed is closest. Sometimes, Asher will actually courageously "catch" the animals we hear because they need help finding their mama's. He has brought us elephants (those ones are really, really HEAVY...and he is really, really FWONG (strong)), spiders (we even had a spider breakfast on Sunday morning because we were told to act really "hawney" (hungry)...it seems we had been out at sea for days without food), and just this morning Asher came up to me pinching a "yittle, tiny dinosaur" between his thumb and pointer finger. We sit on our bed and look down at the sea below us full of eels and sharks and groupers. Asher is known for metamorphosing into a lion or cheetah or jaguar...and he has one of the most convincing roars that a three year old could possibly have. He rolls around on the floor like an armadillo and runs fast like a roadrunner.

I have not only been entertained by his imagination...but I am also inspired. He shows me what it means to create stories and act out scenarios...and there is something so playful and innocent about it. Something about how he learns so quickly about any kind of animal...what it eats and how it sleeps and what kind of noises it makes. I see how interested he is and how engaged he becomes when dreaming of creatures both real and imagined.

The times where we get each other most...where we sink into some kind of harmony...is when Asher is free to live and play and dream so openly and ferociously. I see his energy exerted in one direction, his body working just as hard as his imagination. His active mind is hard to keep up with, but it certainly provides enough inspiration to pour into each one of us who lives beside him. He pulls me out into his world by inviting me to play along and showing me the realms of his fantasy. I learn so much from that. I am moved to create more...to ask him more questions...to indulge in his play...to think of my own little "worlds" that hold glimpses of magic and fun...to dream and exert myself in ways that I think are beyond my capacity.

It all seems to inevitably be taking effect on me...that urge to challenge myself to imagine and dream and create more. For those of you who read this blog consistently...you may have noticed that I have posted each day since the beginning of the month. That isn't typical of me...in fact...what IS typical of me is to be unpredictable. I haven't ever really established a good constant rhythm in this space. I tend to come and go when the moments are right and available but I have done something that I think you should know about. I have quietly joined the insanity of NaBloPoMo ...where I am making the commitment to post EVERY day for the month of November. This is no easy task for me. I struggle with consistency...with planning things out...and often times with creating enough time in the day to make those commitments happen. But...so far, so good. I have made it the first five days...and so I thought perhaps I should be more optimistic and share that bit of truth with all of you! It will be my little secret no longer...and all of you readers will have to bear the burden with me...because I really have no idea what day 29 will look like. I may have nothing more to tell you than a good poop story or how many loads of laundry I did that day. We'll see.

With this kind of juicy imaginative goodness flowing through our home...I couldn't help but do something that challenged me to keep up with him in some kind of exerting, creative way.

Hang in there...hopefully it won't be too painful for any of us...and please...feel free to drop me any encouragement along the way!