A Pocketful of Play

You might not believe the number of ideas, topics and thoughts that run through my head in any given day. But then again, you probably have a fair idea, because my hunch is you have boatloads of activity zipping around in your brain, too. 

The trouble with being a writer is that I want to get it all down (which is literally impossible) and then comes the even more daunting task of making it legible for other eyes. Why do I tell you all this? Well... it's my preamble to say I have something I want to share, but it's kind of rough and I don't really have time to clean it up... But for whatever reason it still wants to come out to play... and who am I to say no?   Today I'm just the scribe and this story begins with my morning writing prompt (courtesy of Sarah Selecky):  "Where did you find that?" Here goes...

"Where did you find that?" she asked.
"Quoi?" I replied. {side-note: in addition to thoughts, I also have competing languages drifting around my brain... but I digress} "What?" I repeated en anglais.
"Your amazing ability to play."

"Oh that... I found it tucked in the back of my closet, buried under a pile of old clothes. It was stuck inside the pocket of a sweater I wore as a child. Somehow I thought I'd outgrown it.

"One day I tucked 'play' in the pocket to hide it from a bully (a kid bigger than me who said I was a baby for playing hopscotch and dress up). I tucked it away so the other kids wouldn't make fun of me. I hid it from the teacher who said I needed to sit still and be serious. I kept it from my parents and the other adults who said it was time to grow up. I hid it from all of them—the people I thought were smarter than me. But mainly I hid it from myself... and I missed it."

"Okay, now I see where you found it, but how did you find it? How did you know it was there?"

"Well... I got tired of the clutter in my closet. It was overwhelming. There were so many things crowding into that tiny space. I had to do something... and so I started to toss things out. At first I tossed out the things I didn't like. You know, the easy stuff like the days-of-the-week underwear my grandmother bought me for Christmas. They were ugly and never fit, so that made them easier to toss (except for the fact I felt obligated to keep them because my grandma gave them to me)."

"What else?"
"I just kept trying things on and what I noticed was there was hardly anything I really liked. Everything was boring, lacking color or sparkle. I realized I really like sparkle... so I kept tossing until the closet got shinier."

"But the play... how did you find that?"

"Oh well... it finally found me. It was inevitable. Once I got the other stuff out of the way, things started to become fun again. The sparkle shined through as I learned what I didn't like.
        I tossed out the ugly - the ill-fitting - the outdated until only the things that fit me remained."

"But I thought you said the sweater didn't fit."
"What? Oh no... I said I thought I'd outgrown it... but that's the magic of play, you never outgrow it. You just have to remember what pocket it's in!"  

photos ©KSH - Central Cemetery, Vienna, Austria

Comments

[Dianna]

Love it!!

[Ann Howard]

What fun! Thanks so very much. I'll look in my closet tomorrow. I know I left some play in there somewhere, if only I can find it under the dreadful, dilatory and dumb.

[Kayce S Hughlett]

delighted to have you both join in the play!! thank you, dianna and ann.