Recapturing Childhood

Play

“When I grow up I want to be a little boy.”
Joseph Heller (Something Happened, 1974)

Yesterday, I went to a local park with my friend, Harry. We have been tossing around ideas for shading our playground at church, which is already a hot-spot and will be impossible to use by June. The park we visited uses a large, colorful tri-sail to cover equipment that would otherwise heat up quickly in the sun. We had forgotten that this week is spring-break for Alabama’s public schools. The playground was absolutely crawling with kids. My first thought was, ‘oh, no’, but we took a seat on a bench to talk about the pros and cons of the shade apparatus. After a little while, conversation lapsed as we watched the children play. Young mothers formed small klatches and chatted, some with babies in strollers or arms. Some children had brought kites and their mothers were helping to get them aloft. I remembered doing that with my children. So did Harry. There were kids of all colors and cultures playing together in the spring sun. Watching their freedom and joy, I experienced a moment of pure timelessness and grace.

Observing children at play is one way of reconnecting with the child inside of you. Sitting there yesterday, I replayed memories from my own childhood; of swinging and riding a merry-go-round on the playground of my school. I remembered the exhilaration of running full tilt for no reason at all. When I was a little girl, I loved to color in coloring books. I still remember one book I had that was elves with Easter eggs. I had so much fun coloring those pictures in bright Crayola colors. And I still love it. Nowadays, I make greeting cards with bright drawings using Prisma-Color pencils and gel pens. I sometimes think that we would all be better off ‘growing down’ rather than ‘growing up’. Now that I’m ‘retired’, I’m going to play some everyday.

If possible today, go to a park or a playground and watch children doing what they do best. Allow yourself to be in the moment and to go where your thoughts take you. Remember what you loved to do as a child—then go and do it! Play is like tonic for the soul.

In the spirit,
Jane