Yesterday, out of the blue, my daughter asked me, “what was your favorite toy while growing up?”

Instinctively, I responded, “sticks and leaves”. Seeing the confused look on her face, I explained how her Aunt and I would come up with the coolest things, with what we had around.

I was lucky enough to grow up near wooded areas. There, I remember my sister and I finding perfect niches in the trees where we built “homes”. Sticks and leaves were gathered to make furniture and brooms. Pinecones and bark were used for dishes.

I also described one of my favorite memories, where we would take our Barbies outside and fling them as far as our little arms would take them. (bear with me…) We would rip their clothes off (keep holding…) and pretend they were stranded on a tropical island. No clothes on a tropical island? We had to remedy that, stat! I remember searching for the perfect leaf to secure around Barbie as a makeshift dress. (because tape was readily available on our tropical island…) We made shelter for Barbies out of, you guessed it, sticks and leaves.

Being a kid at heart, to me, means simply having an imagination. Seeing what could be, outside of the normal or mundane. Taking what you have on hand and making something wonderful or magical with it.