I’ve always loved Dolly Parton. Who doesn’t? Her amazing legacy has been all over social media.
I knew her as the woman with the 9-to-5 voice, the BIG hair, the rhinestones, the jokes, the kindness and, of course, the ability to absolutely get down on a Super Bowl halftime stage. Dolly has always been unapologetically…Dolly.
And maybe that’s part of why we all love her.
She’s fun. She’s funny. She’s oh so kind. She’s wildly talented. And somehow, she makes you feel like you’re sitting on the porch with your favorite aunt.
But then I learned something about Dolly that made me love her even more.
Do you know that more than 30 years ago, she started the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a program that gives free books to children from birth through age five.
BOOKS! With their names on them. Delivered right to their little hands.
Her inspiration? Her daddy. Dolly has said that her father couldn’t read or write, and she wanted to do something that would give children the opportunity he never had.
And she has called the Imagination Library one of the things she is most proud of in her entire life.
I mean…COME ON DOLLY ♥️
And then I heard her say something else that stopped me:
“I didn't have children because I believed that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine."
That one got me. Because what if we all looked at children that way?
What if we saw every child as someone carrying a tiny seed of possibility inside them?
A little imagination.
A little curiosity.
A dream they haven’t even discovered yet.
That’s what I want for my upcoming book series: Bebe and Bailey.
I want every child who opens one of their Books to BELIEVE that there is something Big inside their heart. That they were created for something.
That there is a place in this world that BELONGS to them.
And that sometimes, finding that place takes a little courage, a little friendship, and a whole lot of imagination. They just have to be BRAVE.
Because kids are our greatest resource. Our most wonderful treasure. And maybe our job isn’t to tell them exactly who they are supposed to become.
Maybe it’s to help them wonder. To help them dream. To help them believe.
Dolly’s famous advice is: “If you see somebody without a smile, give them yours.”
And honestly, Dolly seems to have been handing out smiles her whole life.
Which reminds me, kids smile four hundred times a DAY.
Adults? Well, let’s just say we could use a little more practice 😉
So today I’m taking a cue from Dolly.
I’m going to smile a little more.
Wonder a little more.
Give a little more.
And keep finding ways to put good things into the hands and hearts of children.
Because maybe a book is never just a book.
Maybe it’s a tiny invitation to…
Dream bigger.
Wonder more.
Be brave.
There’s something special for each of us!
And if Dolly can use her gifts, her story, and her enormous heart to help millions of children discover the magic of books, then I hope I can spend my time in my little corner of the world doing the same thing, in my own way.
Because Dolly reminds me that you don’t have to be anyone else.
You just have to be brave enough to be exactly who you were created to be, and then use what you’ve been given to make somebody else’s world a little brighter.
That’s what inspires me most about Dolly. She didn’t just become famous. She became useful.
She took her voice, her imagination, her humor, her success, and her heart and turned them into something that keeps giving to children.
That’s pretty magical! So, I’m going to Keep Chasing Wonder.
Because there’s no telling what might grow from one little seed of imagination ✨