Sandcastles

A wise person told me once that if you're feeling stressed out, upset, or worthless, you should go play with children.

Tonight, I was on the new beach deck (gorgeous, by the way) and I was looking out over the lake and the coming sunset and the people that were sitting or playing on the beach (and the crazies that were in the water swimming), and I saw two of my favorite (well, really, they're ALL my favorite) staff kids playing down in the sand. Blaze, 7,  and Isaiah, 5,  were constructing a HUGE structure that can only be considered a sand fortress. It had a big ole wall with towers every few inches, a giant hole in the middle with an island and a "flag" (read: long piece of dead dune grass), and the hole had an island in the middle. I asked Blaze if he wanted to fill in the area around the island and make it like a lake, but he said that it actually wasn't an island, but a mountain coming out of a valley. They put me to work smoothing out the land and putting more towers on the interior of the fortress. Once I'd filled all of that in, we decided we wanted a lake outside the fortress. So Blaze and I set to work digging out a hole in which to pour bucketfuls of water while Isaiah outfitted the outer walls with smaller towers. I'm telling you, this thing was the most secure sandcastle in the entire world.

I taught Blaze how if you dig down far enough, you'll find water, and that's how you know that you can fill in your hole with water and it won't soak in. He thought this was so cool and wanted to dig a bunch of other holes, but I said that we should just focus on this one. We raced back and forth between our hole and the shore to get more water, giggling the whole time. No sooner had a turned my back to get more water when I heard a loud splash. Blaze had jumped into his little hole and his entire body filled it up. He had the BIGGEST grin on his face and I knew he was having so much fun. Isaiah was still working on his towers and shaking his head with a smile on his face, as if he was the older, wiser brother.

It was at this moment that I realized why playing with children was the cure for stress and sadness. Kids are still able to use their imaginations to see a world with no problems. They don't worry about the little things. For instance, I managed to get a lot of wet sand on my shorts, and when I mentioned this to Isaiah, he simply said, "It's okay! It's just sand! Put them in the laundry and your mom will wash them for you!" This made me laugh a LOT. Kids are just so funny, especially these two.

I wish my life now was as easy and carefree as it was when I was their age. Blaze's biggest worry this evening was the fact that the walls of our "lake" were caving in from the water in it. My biggest worry is paying for college. Isaiah's biggest worry was not having enough towers around the outside of the fortress. My biggest worry is never finding someone who will marry me. Getting a job after graduation. Figuring out how to keep my closest friends in my life while we get pulled in different directions. No comparison, eh?

I'm happy to say that for 1 hour and 7 minutes, I was able to forget everything that was on my mind and just build sandcastles. And even though I was running around and all over the place with those two, it was the most rested I've felt in a loooooooong time. Ironic, right? Never underestimate the power of time spent with children.