Evie climbed into the laundry basket wearing a metal colander on her head and carrying a wooden spoon.
This might have looked like an unusual way to help with the laundry, but Evie was no longer in the living room.
She was Commander Evie, captain of the fastest moon rover ever built.
The sofa cushions became enormous space rocks. The socks scattered across the floor were mysterious moon creatures, and a stuffed green alien had been appointed second in command.
It was an important position, although he had very little experience.
Evie pushed the wooden spoon forward.
“Full speed ahead!”
The laundry basket did not move.
Evie leaned harder.
It still did not move.
But somehow, she was having the greatest space adventure of her life.
A few minutes later, Mommy called from the kitchen and asked Evie to bring in the laundry basket.
Evie looked down.
Her moon rover had become a laundry basket again.
Nothing in the room had changed. The basket had always been a basket. The colander had always been a colander, and the alien was still a stuffed toy with absolutely no qualifications.
What changed was the experience Evie’s thinking brought to life.
That is not only true when our thinking frightens or frustrates us. Thought also creates our excitement, wonder, laughter, and fun. It can turn a quiet living room into an entire universe without moving a single piece of furniture.
Seeing that is helpful because it reminds us that a wonderful experience does not always have to arrive from somewhere outside us. Sometimes joy appears through a fresh thought, right in the middle of the ordinary.
Even on laundry day.
What ordinary object did your imagination turn into something amazing when you were a child?
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