I was thinking about childish things..

There is something so utterly magical about how the minds of children work. And being one of them who’s (hopefully) going to be a child at heart for the rest of my days I find it particularly sad whenever I meet someone who doesn’t remember what it was like to be a child. To play and use ones imagination to the fullest and not caring if it didn’t make sense to anyone else.

I believe that writers (like myself) can easily access that door into their own childlike mind. Maybe it is that we partly just refuse to grow up completely. Because who would ever want to do that?

I’m not saying that being an adult doesn’t have its advantages. But there really isn’t much that can top that adventurous bliss of childhood. I would easily trade every party for the opportunity to climb that tree that touched the sky for the first time again. To explore the forest behind my mother’s house and look for treasures. To dream about what my life would be when I grew up before I even knew what being a grown up meant. To look at the world as my own and packed with the possibility to become anything I could ever dream of and never care about any form of limitation.

I could be the best unicorn rider in the universe. I could travel to any planet at anytime. I would learn to fly and to breathe under water. To talk to animals and shift into any shape. Tame dragons and be the greatest heroine of our time.

The possibilities were endless!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I still dream of all those things! And the greatest part is that I partly get to make them come true every single day. Liar, you say? No no! Let me tell you how.

I read and I write. 

This is my escape from the obligations, the bills and the boring parts of being a grown up. I get to be a child (yet again) every single day, if I want to! I can discover the wonderful universes created by others or I can make up my own. A place where I decide the rules and where I can explore everything for the first time just as I did with that forest behind our house.

I could never imagine myself a life without the possibility to enjoy this kind of imaginative escapes. And that is one of the things that I definitely wish for my son. For him to enjoy being a child for as long as he possibly can. To find the joy in reading books and making up his own stories and universes through storytelling and play. To allow himself to be childish even as he’s venturing into adulthood. To dare to dream and make his own future no matter how impossible it may feel at times.

There is so much joy in keeping your inner child alive. To stay creative and to explore.

Let’s run out there into our well known world as if it was completely new to us. Explore it and see it with childish eyes.

Come on! I dare you 🙂 

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Body Loving by Christina de Vries – POEM

When was the last time

You looked in the mirror and said 

I love this body of mine?

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When there was nothing you’d like to change

Nothing to improve or work with

When you didn’t compare yourself to strangers?

*

Ask me. The honest answer is 

I can’t even remember 

And scary enough, I’m not alone in this

*

Thrown at us from every direction is the guide

Wanting people to become unrealistic creatures

Wanting us to show it all, but makes us hide

*

Creating a dream to become something unreal

To try to get results only photoshop can make

And when you don’t get there, what do you feel?

*

The shame of not being good enough

Some break down because of failing 

There’s only so long a person can act tough

*

I don’t love my body. I wish that wasn’t true

How perfect it would be to only see 

The miracle that makes me and you

*

Think of all this wonderful body can do 

It heals itself, loves and handle pain 

Let’s stop the shaming and say thank you

*

Thank you for letting me feel 

For taking me places and creating memories

For being something to be proud of and not conceal

*

It’s time to focus on getting better from the inside

Using time well spent by giving out a compliment

And stop judging on what is on the outside

*

Learn to see the beauty of a broken soul

To love all that makes us human 

Appreciate the mistakes that makes us whole

*

Body shaming is just another word for hate

And why should we talk down about 

The one thing keeping us grounded, unique and great?

*

It’s long overdue to turn body shaming into body loving 

To take care of it as our most important asset

Because without it, we truly are nothing 

*

You might never see perfection but love it anyway 

For all it gives you and where it takes you

Repeat after me and say:

*

I love my body!

I love my body!

I LOVE MY BODY!

*

Scream it to the world so they can all hear

Write it in the sky and at the bottom of the sea

With those four words, chase away the fear

*

Of never becoming a copy of a lie

Embrace that miracle that is you 

And kiss those body shamers goodbye

*

Life is too precious and too short for shame

Take a break. It’s time to love yourself

Besides, how stupid would we look if we were all the same?

*

©Christina de Vries – Geek Heaven

Quotes geek!

If you asked someone who knows me what kind of geek I am, I think that some of them would have no problem making a pretty long list.

One of the things I geek over is great quotes!

If you follow me on Instagram (featherpen) you’ll see them popping up quite often.

Here are a few of the ones that hang on my wall of inspiration:

And while I’m mentioning my wall of inspiration it would be stupid not to show you how it looks like:

It’s placed over my desk. The place where I sit when I’m at my most creative 🙂

We all need something to motivate us and these quotes are one of the things that really gets me going when I need a little extra push.