I want to feel myself part of things, of the great drift and swirl: not cut off, missing things, like being sent to bed early as a child, the blinds being drawn while the sun and cheerful voices came through the chink from the garden. ~Sylvia Plath
This weekend my daughter and I went exploring. Not in the woods as we normally would, but dumpster diving in a car repair shop, my mom’s wood shop, and my clock repair man’s trash bin.
We were on a mission, looking for things that are one thing, but look like another—funky car parts that look like elkhorn coral, cogs that look like eyes, injector pieces that look like the mouth of a butterfly fish. She’s working on an art piece for a competition where “weird wins.”
And going out to play and discover felt oh so good.
Since April, my family’s been a little closed-in, trying to survive. To be honest, we’re still a little off-kilter, but we were also starting to suffocate inside the walls we carefully constructed to hold ourselves up.
As my girl and I deconstructed a broken clock, wondering at the intricacies its workings and laughing as it spun randomly, I smiled, a realization dawning.
While we were sick, we’d metaphorically and literally sent ourselves to bed early. But now that we were strong enough to go back to playing, we’d forgotten to go back to practicing wonder. We’d stopped discovering.
I’d forgotten something I learned long ago:
Without wonder, without continual learning, our souls start dying.
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I have no idea where my girl’s art project will go, but she’s going to have fun in the process and I’m going back to discovering the world gifted to me. And I hope you join us.
This week, what’s one thing you might do to play like a child up playing after dark?
This short story is in response to the Five Minute Friday prompt: Discover. The rules are: write for 5 minutes and no editing (although I can’t stop myself a little. I am an editor after all.).
Beautiful!! I so have to share this with other teacher friends.
I’m so glad it spoke to you…and I hope your teacher friends like it as well 🙂
Such a needful reminder, thanks! I hope you guys can get out and explore more and more. You have had such a challenging season.
Thanks, Lisa! Exploring is SO necessary to life.
I’m guilty of not paying attention to life around me. Really need to start discovering again.
COming from FMF #79
Being mindful of the gift of our world so often changes my perspective. I don’t know about you, but when I’m out of the thankful habit, my world is so much darker. Praying you find the time to discover your world soon.
Your post reminded me of the wonder we can experience when we take the time to slow down and pay attention to “the world gifted” to us. Great post.
Thanks, Esther! The world is definitely a gift waiting to be unwrapped if only we take a moment to see it.
This reminds me of a walk my daughter and I took not too long ago. We were waiting for my son to come home on the bus. While we were waiting, she collected interesting rocks. I found nice pinecones. There’s a bowl of my favorite pinecones in my dining room reminding me of that fun moment we had.
I’m looking forward to the weekend—hoping for more space to simply be. While reading a good book isn’t top of my “play” charts, it’s a delight I hope to enjoy.
I have little Mason jars here and there throughout my house filled with our treasures. Feathers, rocks, bits of brightly colored rope…even some funky metal pieces we found near a railroad track. I love having the reminders of our fun times in view as a reminder of the fun we’ve had.