I found myself talking to parents this week about an AHA moment I had recently. The reason children go for the box instead of the gift inside is  because they, (the children) are brimming with imaginative thoughts all the time and plain boxes are a giant unpainted canvas! The box can become anything they dream up!
No wonder I see children getting all but lost when painting and gluing an egg carton or such. They get in the zone where the partnership between imagination and creativity collide and become a state of mind, body and hands-on fun when they play or create with simple things.
As they get older they start to shift away from the blank canvas of a box and into STUFF and all of it’s fanciness. They loose, a little at a time, their readily firing imaginations and the magic it’s held for them.
By the time they are grown they have all but forgotten that the simplest thing can have the biggest impact on their imaginative side.
There are lots of  tools to help us rediscover the simple things. Try the book Not A Box by Antionette Portis, which can bring us adults back to simple yet fantastic imaginings when reading with children. Time outside to be present, to be in the wonder of it all and, of course, good old fashioned play are great places to start.
As adult we seek hobbies, gyms and nature to help us get back in our zone of nowness and the beauty of our imaginations. We want the magic of our imaginations back.
Just for exercise, take a look at your next Amazon delivery box and wonder, if it could be anything, what would it be?