The Picture in My Mind

I've always been a lover of books and reading. I have no greater joy than spending time with a book and a bag of sunflower seeds. I always hoped that my kids would have a love of books, so much so that I was constantly buying them books when they were children.

My daughter April loved to read. She would read books over and over again and she would draw pictures from them and create pictures of her own using the books for inspiration.

My son Jim likes to read. You notice I didn't say loves right? I'm pretty sure he just likes reading. If it's a book he's interested in he might scan it, read some of the good parts and then he's done. He's not one to just read for the sheer joy of it.

When he was a little boy, I would buy tons of books for him also in hopes that he, like his sister would love them, read them and let them inspire him to be creative. Well, in a way they did, but not in the same way they inspired his sister.

I will always have a picture in my mind of my son and his special use for books. He used them as building blocks and roads and skyscrapers and houses. I will always have a picture in my head of sitting in my chair reading or watching TV and seeing that little guy go to his room and get his mountains of books and setting them up all over the living room floor and using them with his little Matchbox cars and his Teenage Ninja Turtles and his Power Rangers. I never saw him read them, but he did put them to good use!

He had such good imagination that he could sit there for hours playing. A child's imagination is something miraculous!

I remember sitting there and trying to imprint that image in my head because I knew that one day he would be an adult and that image was what I wanted to cherish about that little boy...and I did. I can see it clearly in my head, just as if it was occurring right this minute.

This post was inspired by "The Costume Trunk." I received a complimentary copy  as a member of the online book club From Left to Write. All opinions expressed are my own. You can read other posts inspired by "The Costume Trunk" at From Left to Write on book club day Thursday July 28th.