Play a While...

When was the last time you played?  I don't mean cards or a game of tennis, but I mean REALLY played?  If you work with kids (or have them) then likely you play quite a bit....and isn't it fun??  When did we stop playing and why??  I ask this because a few days ago I was shopping in Goodwill (one of my favorite stores, BTW) and came across a bag of dinosaurs and a sundry of other little toys....a zebra, army man, palm tree, etc.  I was thrilled because toys are a mainstay for a speech therapist.  When I got home, I made some animal soup to clean them up.

They had to dry off, so onto a towel they went.   I sort of forgot them until my son....not a little guy at age 19...came in and saw them there.  He said, "I remember having some of those!  I think I had this one...and that one....but what did I DO with them??"  I said, "You PLAYED with them!!!" He looked rather puzzled by that replying, "How do you PLAY with these??"  Typical of kids (and they are all kids when you are 51!) today who just don't PLAY with things anymore.  They text, play video games, or whatever it is, but they don't PLAY with things like they should!  That's why I love working with young kids....you can play even the silliest games with them and they just eat it up!

So anyways, the next morning I woke up and inspected my toys chilling out on the towel and noticed something....there was a little arrangement set up that hadn't been there the day before!!  I smiled to myself because I knew what had happened.

My son decided to PLAY a while....even if for just a moment.  I asked him later about his encounter and he sheepishly said, "I kinda liked it!"  Of course he liked it!!  Who doesn't enjoy PLAYING??!!!

Your takeaway for the day:  Just forget what's up in your life and play a while.  Play anything.  Just play!!!