Sometimes all you need is an empty box

So apparently a ton of money was spent for Christmas gifts this year (duh). Here's one example:

"According to a news release issued Sunday by comScore, U.S. consumers spent nearly $6 billion during "Cyber Week" which kicked off with "Cyber Monday" on Nov. 28 and ended on Dec. 2."*

6 billion dollars spent...in 1 week! I know there's a bunch of toys in my condo right now that contributed to that amount, plus some clothes and a few gadgets. Many of them haven't even been opened yet. 

Jeannette and I were out of town during the above mentioned huge spending week. My mother-in-law came to our place to watch Baylee and Jaxon. For her time with the kids she didn't contribute anything to the $6 billion.  She just brought a big box. 

She found this huge box in her garage and brought it for the kids to play with. "Do whatever you want with it. Just have fun!" 

Almost every time we text her to ask how the kids were, the response returned was some version of "They're playing in/with the box." Even the last day, before we got on the plane to come home, the last text we got was, "They're still in that box!" 

We were sent quite a few images of the nonstop box entertainment:

   

It's not that we shouldn't buy stuff. Stuff isn't bad.

But our stuff shouldn't be allowed to make us dormant.

 

You can play Angry Birds for an hour on iPad and wonder where the time went.

Better yet though you can use an iPad to draw, write, and edit photos. You'll still wonder where the time went, but at least you'll have something tangible and maybe even inspiring to show for it.

The lesson of the box is that we need more opportunities to create. 

We need to give ourselves permission to spend time using our imaginations.

 

What would that look like for you in 2012?