My daughter's favorite word is "whimsy." I have spent a lot of effort trying to instil in our children the importance of finding joy, laughter and fun to break up the monotony and the pain and sadness that often pervade our lives.
Yesterday evening we were all watching TV (blinds were all closed) when my husband decided to open the door to our deck. I saw sunshine and I saw rain and I immediately got up and said "rainbow weather!" and went outside our front door to find that a large, brilliant double rainbow had formed over our neighborhood! Our entire family went out to look at it and my daughter and I took lots of pictures! My husband thought we were ridiculous- especially me since I went out into the middle of our road in the rain to capture the full rainbow with my camera. I asked him "where's your whimsy?" 🙃
We live on a dead-end road that has a grassy field that is a utility right-of-way that leads to a creek. The properties on either side of the right-of-way are both owned by one of our neighbors. On one side sits their house and the other lot is an undeveloped field in the middle of which our neighbor maintains a large garden and greenhouse. We have planted pumpkins and sunflowers in his garden in years past and we help keep it watered when they are out of town. There is a little wooden foot bridge over the creek that allows you to cross from one field to the other without getting wet. 😁 Both fields are filled with clover and one of them has a big patch of tall grass at one end. This was a wonderful oasis for our family during the COVID lockdowns. There is clover growing all over in both these fields. Whenever we walk through there I am always in search of 4-leaved clovers. When I find them, I take a picture and sometimes I pick them to press in a book and use for a fun St. Patrick's Day craft. I often enlist the help of my family in the search. My son likes to hide in the tall grass and play hide-and-seek or else he's looking for bugs to observe and my daughter is always on the hunt for flowers. If there are daisies, she will make a daisy chain to put on her head.
This week is my son's spring break and he really wanted to go to the Kidsquest Museum during this week so we spent a couple of hours there on Wednesday. My son had so much fun with all the hands-on exhibits! Such a fun place to explore!
This week is spirit week at my daughter's school and she has participated in all the themed dress-up days. Today was a western theme so after the Kidsquest Museum excursion and after picking my daughter up from school, we headed to my Mom's house for more fun and whimsy and to borrow my Dad's cowboy hat and boots. She borrowed her other Grandpa's flannel shirt that was hanging on my husband's side of the closet (he passed away in 2008) and looked like a genuine cowgirl as she headed to school!
We find moments of whimsical fun when we can. Driving to the store this week I noticed puffy clouds and my son was telling me what shapes he saw in them. The other day on my way to pick my daughter up from school I noticed the layers of clouds had made a square shaped hole and blue sky was showing through as if it was a window in the sky and a little cloud appeared inside the "window" that looked like a person peeking through it at the earth. I was driving so I couldn't take a picture but I often take pictures of the clouds.
I see faces in everything. Most recently I found the food coloring I dripped in to make green frosting for St. Patrick's Day cookies frowning at me!
I can give more examples from my own life but I see beauty, fun and whimsy because I'm LOOKING for it. So go out and find your own whimsy and enjoy all God has to offer! He isn't a dull or boring God. He gave us this beautiful creation to explore and He gave us our senses of humor and the ability to laugh. He created fun and our sense of adventure. We just need to unlock it and allow God to show is how creative He is!
