The day you forget what it’s like to be a child is the day the leaves drop from the old maple, and all you see is the work piling up in the driveway.

It’s the day you don’t notice the flyaway bubbles that squirt out of the dish soap. You don’t smile at the plucky little escapees because all you see is the stack of dishes and too little time.

It’s the day you lose your patience with the sluggish driver ahead of you instead of making up a story about why she’s going 25 in a 40.

Just because there’s no one to give you time out doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it.

Time outdoors.
Time out of the helter-skelter.
Time out of your habits. Out of your routine thoughts.
Time out of this world.
Time to imagine, to rediscover.
To remember.
To wonder.