The Importance of Play

I was thinking the other day about beginnings and where my own journey with children originated. There are many things in life that cannot be pinpointed but if you’re very lucky you can recognize the start of something. Joan Didion speaks about this in her piece, “Goodbye to all That.” She says: “It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends. I can remember now, with a clarity that makes the nerves in the back of my neck constrict, when New York began for me.”
Like Didion’s, my own journey has a recognizable start point that I wanted to share with you all here today.
It was about fourteen years ago. I remember walking by the Hudson Street playground. It was a chilly afternoon and I’m sure my mind was preoccupied with getting home, amongst other things. I didn’t notice him at first but as I got closer I saw there was a little boy there playing with a stick. It was just him and this wooden walking stick yet he was coming up with all sorts of games. He’d toss it up in the air, put it down on the ground. Hop over it, spin it around. He was having a blast. Pure joy. And all he had was this one little stick. I stopped dead in my tracks and realized something incredibly important: I had forgotten how to play.
Of course I had forgotten how to play. I was a grown-up. I had responsibilities and priorities. I had bills and an apartment. I had a life. But when I saw this child, I knew. I felt it down into my bones: play is an incredibly important aspect of life and you are forgetting it. When is it that a stick becomes just a stick and not a portal into a world of adventure? When is it that we stop seeing a jeweled sword and start seeing just a discarded branch?
What I am about to suggest may seem impossible and ridiculous, but bear with me: the state of imagination and play never has to end.
The only reason we stop seeing the sword is because we allow ourselves to. What if we saw play for what it really is? A vitally important aspect of life. The thing that fuels and fills us. Joy.
Play is creative. It is fun and it is improvisational. One of my favorite things about my job is how dynamic it is. Sure I have lesson plans and there are some things I want to get done but being with children never goes according to the rules. I am constantly on my toes, seeing what the children really need from me in any given moment. I am using my creativity and to me, that’s play.
Being silly, breaking the rules, telling stories, laughing, skipping, listening to music, MOVING. Have you played today?
Have a wonderful week!

-Kate