All Adults were children once

All adults were children once but few remember it

-Saint Exupery-

Don’t Forget to Play!

On the theme of us being children and forgetting I am reminded of something that happened to me some months ago. Actually longer as it was pre my Talking for Peace days!

At that time I was more judgementa! I was quick to jump in with a quick diagnosis of anyone out there behaving in a way I thought unacceptable.

I was walking along the street when I saw a young man in his 20s in the middle of the road with a remote control car enjoying himself racing the car from side to side. My thoughts were oh stupid man and I was annoyed; by this time I was passing a painter on a ladder who looked my way. As I caught his eye I said in a disparaging way: ‘boys will be boys’ expecting him to be in agreement. To my added annoyance he replied ‘But he’s only playing; no harm in that.’

It took me 5 mins to reach my destination during which time I reflected on what had occured in this time I had a revelation! My annoyance had transformed to joyfulness. Had I not had an appointment I would have run back to the painter and thanked him for teaching me a lesson. It’s ok to play! It’s invigorating!

I often ask my clients when do they have fun/what do they do for fun. I realised I had not been brought up to play; playing was a waste of time. I am re-discovering the art of play. This has greatly helped in my relationship with my teenage son. When he is messing about throwing things at the bin etc I recognise this as his playfulness rather than making the judgement that he is doing things to annoy me.

With the Talking for Peace programmes I am often reminded of the need to abandon judgement and just to observe a situation and identify what has triggered my annoyance etc

This entry was posted on 20/08/2007 at 05:01 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.