As a coach and avid photographer what I found in the pages was inspiration for my own creativity — and I hope for yours too.

As Christine experienced in her classroom of 4th graders, the book is a palate for the imagination and allows each of us to see that anything in our everyday lives can be a source for creative imagining. A snowy hillside and a pancake misfired from the pan to a stack of papers to grade or your car keys on the kitchen table. There is life in every object around us, all it takes is an extra moment to consider what it is saying/showing us.

When I hired my first coach in 2003, I did so to be more creative without leaving my day job. It took me in a lot of directions. The most profound one was to realize how I was already creative. You are too.

Have doubts? Well, for one, you are already creative in the classroom. Creating lessons to challenge the minds of your students, and the ability to rework them on the fly. Your classroom is not the only place you are creative though.

Where else? Maybe you are an artist. I can say for sure that you see the world in a unique way from everyone else you know. Whether it’s imagining the shapes of clouds while daydreaming out your window, or how you organize a grocery list based on the aisles of your local store, you come to the world in your own way.

To me, the beauty of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, is that it reminds us to take that time and look around. What are the things in your life that you take for granted? Look around you right now…go on. What everyday objects catch your eye? Look closer. What would they say, do, if they were suddenly animated in this moment? What other forms might they take before your eyes?

Imagination is not limited to the playground. It is in all of us. A muscle that we always have access to, even if it’s a little rusty. By tapping into it daily, just by stopping to look around, you have the opportunity for downtime, for inspiration and for connecting to the child inside. What could be more worthwhile than that?