Make Room For Your Inner Child

                                            “The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.” 
                                                    — Stephen Nachmanovitch

Family beach vacations are a time for bonding and creating beautiful memories, but with young children, beach vacations can also mean total routine upheaval, crankiness and thinking outside the box.  After all, there is only so much sand digging, shell collecting, sand castle building and swimming you can do.

The Forgotten Coast

So when we went to my parents' beach house in Florida this past week, I was expecting the typical fun, but also exhausting beach vacation.  Let's just say, I was wrong.  As we made it to the Gulf side of Florida, also known as "the forgotten coast," my Mom and my Aunt immediately took on the creative.  Our week was filled with the story of Pirate Pete and his trusty sidekick, Thunder (a.k.a my Uncle and my Dad dressed as pirates complete with dirty faces and silver teeth made of foil.)  When we weren't building sand castles and soaking up the sun, we searched for treasure, read pirate stories, painted treasure chests, looked for mermaids and even gave the dirty pirates soap:) 

My son's treasure chest

The Tree With No Leaves

Through this crazy and amazing adventure, I learned that your kids can inspire your greatest creativity.  Our beach vacation became a magical journey where our imaginations could run wild.  When my son and I came across a pirate playground (total coincidence), I found myself kicking off my sandals, making pirate stew, looking for magic at the tree with no leaves and laughing hysterically over who did the best "Er Matey."  And when my Aunt spread blue glitter on the sand, I watched my son's eyes pop out at the thought that a real mermaid had lain in the sand.  There was no room for doubt, fear or judgement in his eyes.  Just pure bliss.   

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Magic Mermaid Sand

So, of course, that's when my noodles started to boil.

Wouldn't it feel good to make room for our own inner child every day?  A moment when we can let our own imaginations go....a space for our creativity to flourish without judgement, fear and doubt.  Thanks to my parents and to my Aunt and Uncle, our beach vacation became just that.  A beautiful space for all of us to run free with our own imaginations.

So, go ahead and leave some room for your inner child when you're being creative this week or throwing your noodles on the wall.  Go back to that blissful place when you didn't over think everything....when you created purely on impulse and emotion.  I guarantee your creativity will blossom!  

And lastly, when you're with your kids this week, let yourself listen to the little voices of magic because they will inspire your greatest noodles.