On, In, and Around Mondays: Imagining What We Need

The deck is empty of toys. Just grown-up things are placed here and there. A table with black-armed lawn chairs. An old mop. A pillow for grandma to lean against. A faux black-iron pot, which once held flowers. Twine, rope, a suitcase carrier. A plastic blimp whose function is undetermined.

My Littlest senses this won't do, for young cousins in need of diversion. She proposes a carnival.



Mop becomes pony ride, rope becomes tether. Blimp becomes hanging boxing toy. Pot, a receptacle for a tossing-the-twine game. Suitcase carrier is suddenly trolley (only for the youngest, my girl tells the cousins). Chairs, in a row, are a roller coaster. "I'm the dwiver!" shouts the tiny boy cousin. "Okay, you're the driver!" shouts my Littlest in return.

Children become players in a play. Cowgirls are attacked by a tiny cowboy. "It's a bandit!" cries my girl. "I'm a band-aid!" he cries in return.



When it is time for supper, grandpa tries to put the chairs back, undo the blimp. The tiny cousin protests, "No! Don't. We worked hard on dis!"

And they did. I sit in the family room, watching all. Learning from the children, again. To laugh and imagine.



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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

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This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...