MYLESTONES: The Miracle of Loaves and Fish Lobster

Imagination is a beautiful thing. With it, the kids create thoroughly entertaining scenarios in which I simply have to wave my hands and yell "Arrghhh, Matey!" from the comfort of my patio chair.

And off they will go, screaming wildly, running like mad for the swing set that doubles as a battle ship in their Sea of Wonder.

But sometimes, I don't know what to make of Imagination. Like for instance, in this conversation:

C: "My bad thoughts must have worked!"

M: "Whaddaya mean?"

C: "I was thinking that a monster came in and buckled my seat belt before I got in the car. And then my seat belt WAS buckled, so the monster must have done it!"

M: "Really, a monster, huh? You sure it wasn't just your sister?"

C: "Shhhh, when we get out of the car, we have to sneak out quietly, so he doesn't wake up and get mad at us for disturbing the peace."

I definitely liked that part about not disturbing the peace. But I had some reservations about the "bad thoughts must have worked" statement. It sounded a bit like the contrarian counterpart of a theory outlined in The Secret. (I'm not going to link to a book I think is a load of stinky poo, so if you haven't heard of the book, just pretend I didn't refer to it).

Nevertheless, I let the seat-buckling monster live on for ten more minutes while I milked the "be quiet so he doesn't wake up" idea for the rest of the car ride.

But lest I fret about the borderline bad influence Imagination might exert over my generally happy-go-lucky children, I had to worry no more when Caed came to me yesterday with this announcement:

"Me and Dani are p'etending that Jesus is giving us lobster and goldfish and all the things we need to eat! Cuz we didn't have any food. And He can do anything."

Then he added, "But you know, Mom, it's just for p'etend. Cuz for real I don't even like lobster."

Now if only we could work the water-into-wine story into the pretend play, we'd have all the makings for a truly miraculous (albeit imaginary) dinner:

Vintage wine
Lobster (and goldfish to boot)
Quiet kids (you know, because we don't want the monster to wake up and get mad).

Ahh, I can only imagine.

Albert Einstein said, "Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

I interpret that to mean that the seat-buckling monster and lobster-multiplying miracle are indicators that my children will go far in life. Or maybe they'll just go all over the place, kind of like this post.

So where's your imagination taking you these days?

(My imagination is taking me to a warm and sunny June day at the beach. Which, come to think of it, shouldn't be a stretch of the imagination! And yet it's looking more likely that my faucets will spontaneously spray Cabernet than this rain will go away!)