Playdate

Donald Winnicott, a psychoanalyst and pediatrician, writes about “potential space.” Sometimes he uses the label “play space”. I think he’s talking about the ability to create a space where anything can happen. When children play, they make up what they do bit by bit. One thing leads to another. Adults, and I am guilty of this, have a tendency to over plan. There’s a lot we adults can learn from children.

I had a lot of fun last week telling anyone who would listen that I had a playdate. Saying the word made me feel like a kid again! I wrote PLAYDATE in big letters on my Day-Timer calendar.

Who invited me to this playdate? Lisa, a Tai Chi Chih teacher friend from Colorado, sent an invitation to several of us she wanted to spend more time with. She said we would be playing around with what we knew about TCC and left it at that. It was fascinating to meet people from different states and hear their reasons for practicing TCC. Lisa suggested we allow for dichotomy – differences in our training since we all trained under different teachers. She said we would keep it informal and see how it played out.

We each took turns leading as we practiced together. I learned, because of someone else’s question, more about relaxing my wrists in particular movements. At the end of our playdate, my enthusiasm for my own practice of Tai Chi Chih had increased.  

Since this playdate, I’ve been thinking about how powerful it can be to carve out a space, give minimal suggestions, invite people to participate, and see what happens.   Another way of saying this may be that we need to play more!

Inspired, I’m going to try something new and create at least one space in my day (maybe 30 to 60 minutes) to play. I define it as spending time on something that has meaning for me and is not a necessary item on my to-do list.

I already started! As I was scrolling the Urbandale Community Library website, I fortuitously found Listening in the Dark: Women Reclaiming the Power of Intuition. This book was not on my TBR list. It just caught my eye. There are essays by eighteen different writers on how they get in touch with their intuition. For added playfulness, I’m just reading the essays that pull me in. It’s fun!

Let’s pretend we are having a playdate together! Here’s your invitation to, on your own, spend an hour doing the first fun thing that comes to your mind. Let me know where it leads you!

IMAGE: A beautiful noisy day in the neighborhood as we get new roofs!