Having to be creative again...

My son eyes aren't teaming properly. They create blurry images. To compensate his brain shuts off his weak eye and overloads his dominant eye. This knock-on effects are reading fatigue, inability to stay focused, etc. We may have scratched this up to ADHD and sought medication. Thankfully, my wife kept pulling the thread and we eventually settled on a course of action that includes occupational and vision therapy. Therapy seems to be improving his eye sight and his attitude.

One activity that he must do for vision therapy, aside from his exercises, is to look into a special light for between five and twenty minutes. Ever the overachiever, he wants to do twenty minutes every time. This is good for him. But for us this means we either read to him or, as he has decided, we have to create and narrate a story. Look, my wife is a lawyer and I am a software engineer. We must be creative in our own endeavors, but neither of us have used this creative story telling muscle in decades. Probably since we were young and had imaginary friends.

The consequence is that while he is exercising his muscles in new ways, we are exercising our creative muscles in new ways. Sometimes the twenty minute saga follows the narrative of him playing Survivor. Other times, like tonight, he was a "Ghost Hunter" and had to solve a Scooby-Doo like mystery in a fictitious town. The seconds feel like hours. What an experience! I implore anyone who hasn't tried it, to give writing a short story, or ten, an honest go. For me, it is the opportunity to rediscover the land of make believe, the joy of imagination, and the fun a captivated young audience hanging on your every word.