Don't Grow Up 

I grew up in a family that liked to play.  We did not play in the ways that other families played.  It seemed other families were always going to sporting events, boating, travelling, and so on and so forth.  Not my family.  We played in the real sense of play.  We played tag outside, we slip and slided in the backyard, we road our bikes, our scooters, our rollerblades.  We had movie night and sometimes movie days.  Magical movie weekends happened complete with brownies!  We came up with our own games and played well-loved ones like foursquare or kickball.  Our swing set was our palace.  It was not just myself and my siblings that enjoyed these childlike things; it was my parents too.  Nothing was better than watching my dad and grandpa show me how to shoot hoops in the driveway with their cowboy boots on.  Or watching my mom teach us how to flip ourselves out of a swing.  None of us could do it quite like she could, but we all enjoyed the show and teaching moment.  We had pets and our pets had babies.  We had stilts.  We had jump ropes.  We learned and experienced growth through playing and life as kids.

Something crazy happens when you enter high school.  At some point, you realize that you are becoming an adult.  You want to be the best adult that you can be, but what does that look like?  What kind of adult are you going to be?  The “stickler” going to work every day and growing up way too fast?  Or the “adult” that plays through college but in older, more mature ways?  It is such a big decision to make!  For me, I chose to get married and work every single day.  I would not say that I lost the love of playing, but it took until years later when I had my first child to realize that being a kid is so much more fun.  When my daughter was just a baby her dad and I divorced.  It was a very adult decision to make, but I felt like such a responsible kid through the entire ordeal.  Why?  Because when times were hard during that process, I found myself on the floor playing with her toys or outside playing in the snow.  Playing healed me and took me through a rough patch in life.

A few years down the road, I found myself remarried with a second child under my wing.  Once again, playing with my kids brought me through another rough patch when I experienced hard anxiety for the first time in my life.  I found then, and have stuck with, the idea that we should never grow up.  When life seems like too much, our day was too stressful, a big decision is weighing on our minds, or we are grieving the loss of someone or something, snapping back to our childlike ways seems to heal us in a very profound way.  Board and video games, water balloon fights, basketball in the driveway, laser tag, slip and sliding, and sledding saved us all during a pandemic year.  Experiencing the joy of animals and welcoming new pets introduced a childlike fascination and joy.  We made it through a hard trial that the entire world encountered by playing together as a family.

My daughter continually tells me that she does not want to grow up and I continually tell her not to.  Becoming an adult does not mean that we need to lose the joy that so many things brought to us throughout childhood.  Animated movies will always be better.  Board games will always solve a problem; or maybe create one if you are competitive.  And nothing is better than running through a sprinkler when the world feels too hard.  Do not grow up.  It is worth keeping that innocence and wonder inside.  What an important lesson to learn as a kid and continue to teach my children today.

Love, Heather

 "Wax strong" has many meanings that relate to becoming stronger and growth.

What's up everybody?!  I make videos.  I share all my thoughts on all the things and in all the ways.  Well, in the video way.  I've thought about a blog for awhile now and decided I needed to continue to share everything on my mind in written word also.  Truth be told, I have a lot to say and I LOVE to write.  I LOVE to share my thoughts and ramblings.  So, welcome to my ramblings, a.k.a. the blog.  

Wax Strong Coaching was born about one year ago.  I happened to take a Family Life Coaching class at BYU Idaho with a lot of anxious feelings toward it.  I thought life coaching was hokey.  I was afraid that I was wasting my credits.  I also wondered what I would learn from it and what where it would lead me.  Class, itself, taught me a lot.  But it wasn't until I started doing practice sessions with peers from my class that I learned how much I love to coach.  There was something magical about sitting across from someone (I mean... as close to being across the table as I could be on Zoom) and hearing them share with me.  It was even better when I felt prompted or inspired to ask a question or say something that brought about emotion in the other person.  Do I like to make people cry?  Well, that's a trick question.  Yes.  I do.  But only when I know that it's leading to something beautiful and healing.

Long story short, life coaching and I became best friends.  Wax Strong was born.  I embarked on a journey that I was not picturing for myself.

Wax Strong.  Where does this come from?  Well, it's often mentioned in The Book of Mormon.  "Wax strong" has many meanings that relate to becoming stronger and growth.  Now, sometimes in The Book of Mormon this phrase is used to describe how people became more wicked.  They "waxed strong" in iniquity or sin.  But hey, growth comes in many forms, right?  I especially liked the verse in Alma 9:22 where we are taught that the people were able to wax strong so that they were not destroyed.  These words could perfectly describe my life.

And that's something I will share over time.

For now, enjoy my website, look my up on Instagram (@wax.strong) and I have videos on YouTube.  That's brand new for me and a little bit weird if I'm being honest.  

Check back often for more ramblings and don't forget to send my an email or message with your own.

Love, Heather