Well, he's not so little anymore.
This summer our son turns thirteen. Over ten years ago, my husband and I marveled how content he was on Christmas morning to be playing for hours...it was at least all morning...not with one of his cool, new toys, but with a bit of red, felt lint he named "Fluffy." As Fluffy floated in a shaft of sunlight, our son was deep in his own imagination, a world too few children choose to play in as they grow older.
We were talking about this today as we watched our son play in a pool with an old kitchen sponge. He wanted to use the sponge to loosen some grunge around the edge of the pool. After he did a bit of this chore, he spent a good thirty minutes flinging the sponge, diving for it at the bottom as it sunk, then squeezing it out and asking me where he should fling it next.
When I mentioned I saw a butterfly, he jumped out of the pool and coaxed it onto his finger. It was the color of rust, he noticed, and it had a damaged wing. Luckily, after his dad bet him $10 to eat it, the butterfly flew off to a high branch. Not for a second did I think our son would eat the butterfly. Well, okay, for a second I did hope he wouldn't eat it. He is turning thirteen, after all.
What I am grateful for is how spending time with our child helps us reconnect to feelings of joy. He finds so much pleasure in simple past times. Taking the time to inspect a butterfly's wings, skimming an old sponge across a pool's surface, making it land where you want it to...it all relates to living in the moment, our "true home."
As adults, we need to find small ways to loosen up and connect to joy. Yesterday afternoon, I attending a hoop making "playshop" and created my own 11 foot, 160 psi hoop. Sipping sangria and chatting away, I wrapped my hoop with turquoise gaffer tape, added some reflective bling and have been hooping it up whenever I can over the past 24 hours.
What kind of simple pleasure wil you embrace today? Challenge someone to a race, send your beau a love note in the guise of a paper airplane, or just dance like crazy!
You will know you're having fun when your child demands playtime with your new toy. Just don't hog it, okay?
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