Last friday, my son and I went out for a very long walk to feed the ducks and geese by our neighboring pond. It was A beautiful day, lots of sunshine, warmer than usual... on our way down, Charlie, our neighborhood cardinal, was out front by our garage singing loud to us and we threw him a little bread...there is something to be said about seeing such a bright red color against the white snow, it gives us hope that life isn't all made up of grey...so we walked on to the pond and on the way a family of blue jays chased each other -very noisily from tree to tree..playing, swooping, just enjoying the day...I told my son to listen closer and try and find the bird as it seemed the more we listened the louder it got and more and more birds joined in...I found it beautiful and my son could care less as he found a stick and proceeded to poke at a piece of dog poop he found...as I tried to drag him away with promises of feeding more birds by the water, he proceeded to jump in the snow and get wet...aarrgghhh! this was not the way it was supposed to go....but, he seemed to think that was more fun than anything...I gave him a few minutes....As soon as we got to the pond, we pulled out our saved bags of bread and threw them to the ducks, which were sleeping in the sunshine on the side of the water...they were so peaceful...until Sean ran at them and scared them away, laughing as they flew off to the other side of the pond....I was frustrated because I wanted to feed them, not scare them...the geese heard the commotion and flew in from a neighboring park to see what the commotion was and I knew they would eat the bread...sigh, finally we can feed the birds...as I started to throw in the bread pieces, Sean ran off to the side and proceeded to jump, slide and eventually fall into a large mud puddle- laughing off course..it was time to go, I carried him on my shoulders and was muddied all over...he was very happy and enjoyed his morning "feeding the birds" so, who do you think had the better time, me or Sean? It got me thinking about how I try to control so much in my life, and play, like creativity, is something you can't control, but just open up your arms and let it occur naturally...I know you can set up environments to be more creative or playful, but i think that is all...the rest has to happen on its own, naturally...thats the lesson my son and the birds taught me that morning...I also have decided to keep this blog going, after class, as I think the idea of exploring creativity in my own life is something i want to keep looking at under a microscope...well, but not look to hard, I have to remember, some of the most creative things I have done has come when I was playing!
p.s. today is a full moon- good day to start something creative!
I never realized how closed off I was to the creative impulse until I had children. They are completely in every moment. It's a great reminder to us.
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly in tune with the creatures in nature, but my son Samuel is. He reminds me to look at the bugs and poke dead squirrels with sticks. I love him for that. And for many other things.
ReplyDeleteI find myself always telling the children that I work with no. No, we can't take a wagon to the park filled with 18 soccer balls! Why did your parents buy you so many damn balls anyway? No. Don't eat your cereal like that, it's making a mess. Hold your spoon like this. No, don't touch that gum stuck on the bench it's gross and has germs. No. Don't dump out all your toy cars...blah, blah, blah... why do we enforce so many rules? Why do things always have to be a certain way?
ReplyDeleteThis time of year we have to remind ourselves to listen to the sounds of the outdoors. Not the typical noise that lawnmowers and jackhammers make, but the beautiful sounds that the thousands of birds make. They are like a symphony...there are no other words to describe their sounds.
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