What do you do when when a six-year-old sheathed in plastic armor points a large shiny silver plastic laser gun in your direction and shouts… “Dissolve Creature!” as he pulls the trigger?

Naturally… you drop down dead in a puddle on the floor, that’s what!

So that’s exactly what I did. Despite the fact that I had a 10 month old on my hip and another at my feet.

Another six-year-old and a four-year-old ventured near with swords at hand and some ridiculous things on their heads for who knows what reason, and began poking me to check my level of deadness. (not to mention one of the twin babes sitting there bawling and the other curiously trying to poke me in the (thankfully) closed eye)

As I laid there inert (I can do that part for an amazingly long time, long enough that the three marauders went to the next room to confer and the crying 10-month-old stopped crying) I suddenly had a brainstorm…

time to enact my superpowers. I discreetly motioned to the nearby 16 year old busy on her computer to grab me some paper and two color crayons… red for fire… blue for ice. I quickly scribbled with red on several sheets of paper and crumbled them up into balls, same with the blue.

When those three little boys rounded the corner, smug in their victory, the babies and I started to melt and freeze them with our fire and ice balls! Suddenly, the game had turned….

I’ve gotta tell you, nothing can make you feel more alive than a rousing game of playing dead!

Got me to wondering… when was the last time you let loose and played? Really went with the flow and let your imagination soar, blasting ‘proper decorum’ out the window? Letting yourself forget your worries, your aches… your mind. I recommend you do it as often as possible!

And here’s an interesting and unexpected tidbit I got from this adventure yesterday. The 16 year old granddaughter had a friend over and as I was scribbling away on the paper and crayon-sword-fighting with the babes, I overheard her say to the granddaughter, “Wow, remember when you were younger and you found a grownup who would really play with you? That’s so much fun!”

I’ve been thinking about that today too. And I share similar memories… yet as I look back in time, it dawns on me that when my brothers and sisters and I found a grownup who was willing to play… really play with us, it was usually one who was three sheets to the wind.

Of course, we didn’t necessarily realize that it was the beer or the scotch and soda that released their reserve and set them free… we just thought it was pretty terrific and always looked forward to spending time with that one. ;-)

Here’s a news flash… it’s not only possible, it’s sheer fun to let your imagination fly without the use of any external chemicals… I’m just saying…

I’m going to wrap this up by sharing that many years ago I had a 20 month old in my childcare who was a chatterbox… but not very interested in mastering articulation so whenever anyone would use the word ‘grownups’ she would say it really fast and it sounded just like ‘GRUMPS’… so the kids and I took to referring to grownups as ‘grumps’, which made us laugh and laugh. It seemed to fit. (Imagine my delight when several years later I met some grownup type friends who had similar experiences with a child teaching them that grownups are ‘grumps’)

Here’s my point… we don’t have to turn into GRUMPS.

And it’s never too late to pretend your an astronaut, or an archeologist, or a brain surgeon, or a mountain climber, or a painter, or a dancer, or a construction worker, or an armor-wearing-laser-shooting-man from the past/future any old day you want!

Loosen up, Have Fun and PLAY!