Finding the Fun. Relearning to Play!!!

As children, we all play. Unfettered joyful purposeless play. It's an activity we prioritize above all. I remember spending the majority of the day, every day, immersed in trivial pursuits that never seemed trivial then. When did it change? When did I start packing my day with endless chores and responsibilities? When did play become something I could do once everything else was done? 


When we are little we make promises to ourselves that when we grow up things will be different. We will jump on the couch and bed whenever we feel like it. We will stay up late and play as long as we want. We will eat ice cream whenever we want. Then we grow up and suddenly we worry about being perfect. We have to be thin. We have to have a clean house. We have to have a successful career so we can buy stuff that we will never have time to use. We regulate our bedtimes and become slaves to routine. Play becomes the rare minority of our time. We start to forget our awe and wonder.


Having Skyler... seeing his pure enjoyment of the silly and fun... has prompted a sharp look into the dullness that is my present life. It's become, of late, a giant to-do list. All the promises I made to myself as a child have been broken. Even art, once a cherished playtime activity for me as a child, has become one of those endless chores for me. Another way that I can pressure and berate myself. That coupled with a complete lack of "fun" in my life has left me feeling empty and tense. Time for a change.


In my last post, I talked about my newest project.... the baby book. This has been a revelation for me; bringing back the fun, spontaneous side of my creativity. Thus "Bloopy and Needles" were born. These little stuffed thingys are essentially sketches in fabric... born of silly decisions and no real direction. They are the stuff of play and funny enough, they have even evoked the same childlike silliness in my husband. He has commandeered Bloopy for himself. He carries it around with him like I imagine he would as a five year old. He really loves it deeply, with that child that still resides with in him. 

This hopefully marks a beginning. The beginning of my adult childhood. Not the kind that shirks all responsibility and adult trappings... but a kind of balance. A return to play. I think I shall make it more of a priority... top on the to-do list. I think that I will paint my day with brighter colors, trim it with unfettered freedoms and add a bit of fluff and silliness to every artistic endeavor. I will try to honor those old promises.