"I can't go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then"
~Alice (Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
I use to sit underneath my aunt's dining room table and pretend I was Alice living in Wonderland. I lived a lot inside my head then (I still do). I had (have) a wild sense of imagination that I've worked hard to retain. At some point we grow, and we grow "up". Play turns into something conscious. We move from a sense of wonder into a sense of purpose. The things we once loved often turning into something "lame" and "uncool." We work. We exist. But we aren't here to do just that and only that. The rest of the world changes too as we do. Our immediate world and the world at large. We joke a lot about how far technology has come. I'm at an interesting age where I remember a world before the internet was commonplace. We make reference to things we thought were cool in our childhood (that, spoiler alert, come back to be cool when you're older.) At some point though, regardless of your age, you probably stopped playing.
As It Was is currently a song that lives rent free in my head (probably because of TikTok and my love of Harry Styles). The more I think about it, the more I really realize that it isn't the same as it was.
Isn't that the purpose though? To learn, to grow, to explore. Creating new, releasing old. We can't go back to yesterday. Especially now as the world continues to shift. I'm reading a book right now that has challenged me. How do we, as adults, retain our sense of wonder in it all. Especially with the state of the world. There's a lot of heavy things happening these past few years, and they continue to build. It'll never be the same *as it was* but we often forget to live, don't we? When is the last time you had an unstructured play moment? (Tell me about it in a comment!) I'm blessed because of the field I work in and the company I surround myself with. At work, I can play when I want to (while still being the big kid adult in the room)...but my thoughts are often then clouded with thoughts of "what's next", "what is this play supporting learning wise..." etc. Sometimes its hard to release thoughts and let these play moments exist. Consider your sphere of influence and control... Where in your day/week/month can be space created for play? The book, Discovering the Culture of Childhood (Emily Plank) challenges the reader in this way - asking when is the last time you had time, made time, to go play. Not schedule board game night, not go to soccer practice...but just had good ol' fashioned unstructured play. I hope today brings you some joy to your journey. Love always,
Cousin Laura
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