Playing

   Assuming you are an adult and past that point in your life where most days hold hours of free time ~ what did you used to do to play when you were little? There are some days where I think it is good to remember that time. It might not have been perfect but every child has that beautiful ability to take whatever they have around them and to play.

  When I was really little I played with dolls and outside in a play house my dad had built. I painted and colored and spent time with little friends. However when we moved to our family farm when I was just about eight, that was when play really became beyond magical. We had an old old barn full of cobwebs and mystery. I spent a lot of time in there on rainy days. The chickens would croon and squawk and I would climb high on piles of hay or brush my horse or clean out rabbit pens and listen to the rain on the roof. On sunny days there was the creek. That meant endless hours of fun. I would be out there mostly with siblings and neighborhood friends. We would usually have some sort of cutting tool so we could fashion forts out of bailing twine and weaving branches together. We would wade in the cool water, build bridges out of whatever we could find. We would spend hours just being free, imagining, and the green leaves would make us feel invisible to the outside world. Then there were the bike rides down the road that took us blackberry picking or exploring other creek beds or just biking to feel the wind in our hair. There was so much freedom that was so good for the soul.

   There were horse back rides and time spent brushing and braiding my horses hair. There were hours reading in the sun, or out in the back fields or in the forest. Friends would come over and we would do each other's hair in crazy funny fashions and dress up and pretend to be from a different time era. Often we would have picnics outside or bake in the kitchen. I never had a TV growing up and there was no internet to obsess over. I had books, paper, paints, pens, journals, friends, the outside, a bike, a horse, chickens, a dog and cat, and a goat. That part of my world held a lot of healing and helped me cope with the other not so beautiful aspects of my life. I am grateful. I wish my children had the same opportunities. I wonder what they will look back and on and if they will feel like they felt the same wild freedom I felt I had in those moments. I don't know how they can but I hope that some how they will.

xo