Play Is Not Just for Kids

Elizabeth Estrada emphasizes our human need to play - even as adults.

About two weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast all about play and how important it is for the soul. As always, the ladies from the Abiding Together Podcast, did a great job of presenting play in a wonderful, new way.

It had me ponder this idea of play off and on for days. I am a teacher, so obviously I thought, yep, I play -- but do I? No, I sadly don’t, not the way I should play.

I am sure that St. Joseph, Our Lady, and Jesus played. Even writing about it now makes me grin, picturing them playing. The way my son and I use to when he was a toddler, a preschooler, and even now as a preteen.

I am sure St. Joseph, Mother Mary and Jesus would chat, laugh, and tell stories about their days.

It is also good to have our very own play. As moms, we leave ourselves last and think of time for ourselves as selfish. The long to-do lists come rushing and flooding our brain, so that play isn’t even a choice.

But what if it needed to be so that we could find joy in all the gifts God has given us and gives us every day? Now, play cannot include the phone -- it needs to be something that engages us, something that involves recreation. God wanted us to do this on the seventh day, as He did.

So, how do I play now? Is it easy? have I done it? Well, it’s evolving. As a kid, my favorite thing was going to the five and dime and getting to choose a coloring book and a new box of Crayola crayons, a box of 8!

I would get home and begin on page 1 and in sequence color page by page -- sometimes even adding a background of my own.

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Play has brought me closer to God in a way I can’t really explain except that it affirms in a miraculous way that I am His daughter, little in spirit, childlike. #catholicmom

It was so much fun. This memory made me look through all my many books and found some coloring books some for adults but some I had picked up here and there over the years. There in a stack in the process becoming part of my play.

Then I use to love to plant pots for my porch and somehow life happened and it stopped. I spent a few days “playing” on my porch and have some newly potted plants and in a way “remodeled” the porch. There’s more to do for sure, which just means more playtime.

All I know is that this idea of play has brought me closer to God in a way I can’t really explain except that it affirms in a miraculous way that I am His daughter, little in spirit, childlike, who needs Him and finds Him even when I am playing.