Remembering This Moment: The Making of a Pirate Ship

Remembering This Moment: capturing a moment in our day that I want to hold onto.  It doesn't have to be anything special, just one of the myriad of small, beautiful moments that make up our life.  I know someday the memories of these moments will fade.  This is my way of hanging onto them.  

Read more here.

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The weather has been beautiful this week.

For us that means a lot of time spent under our giant avocado tree in the backyard.

This tree, one of the reasons we bought our house, is the perfect play place.

It is the setting of much exploring, adventuring and pretending.

Aaron  and I grew up in Fallbrook, avocado capital of the world, and avocado trees were a big part of my childhood too.  I had many a tree house up in an avocado tree.

Just like the trees of my childhood, our tree has become a seat of imagination.

The other day, it became a pirate ship.

I love to watch the 3 of them play together.
James is the imagineer.  The director.  The stage setter.
He comes to the house over and over again.
"Mommy, can I have a sheet?"
"I'm just getting some yarn."
"We need telescopes."
"I need a chair."
I help him secure the needed objects and with help from his brother and sister, he sets everything up.


William mostly does whatever James says, as is befitting a little brother, right?
He's usually happy to let James take the lead.
Lilly, however, is starting to come up with her own ideas.
Sometimes this causes a problem.
James is used to being in charge.
They work it out, sometimes with a little direction from me, and get back to creating.


I watch it all: a pile of scrap wood, old sheets and towels, endless strings of yarn, picnic benches badly in need of repainting -- together, they turn into something magical.
Imagination is one of God's greatest gifts to mankind.

2 benches pushed together become the ship's bow.
An old chair becomes the captain's seat.

A sheet becomes a sail.
A towels the ship's deck.

A little chair becomes a lifeboat.
And a little lamb a sailor who is bravely testing it out.  (Lilly's addition)

Yarn, much used around our house, becomes the rigging.
(see more yarn creations here and here)

A branch in the tree becomes the crow's nest.

An old wrapping paper tube turns into a telescope.

And 3 little kids, along with a pile of junk, set out on a journey across the open sea.

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."  G K Chesterton

I guard my children's imaginations jealously.

I nurture it and protect it.

I give it time and place to grow and flower.

I want for them to grow into adults who can still dream.

So I make sure they have room for dreams now.

"It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive." Henry David Thoreau

And yes, there is a mess to clean up.

There is yarn everywhere.

But it is a small price to pay for having our very own pirate ship, don't you think?

Love from,

Greta

*Each time I do one of these posts, I get inquiries from readers who would like to join in.  

So next Thursday I will be posting another Remembering This Moment.  

If you'd like to participate, just send me your link in a comment on this post and I'll add it to my post next Thursday.  

You have a whole week to find that sweet, simple moment of beauty and take a minute to remember it.  

I hope you will.