Play time

My home office is loads of fun, distractions, and opportunities to learn. If I remove my fancy Noise Cancellation Headset (thank you Providence Church), I get to hear regular conversations in the backyard from my four children. They talk, play, argue, debate the virtues of worms, and sing hymns. It’s really entertaining!
As the kids came inside this morning, I asked one of them if he would like to keep playing outside by himself, since it seemed he was enjoying himself. His answer was typical of his straightforward, no nonsense, black and white personality: “I don’t like to play alone.” As my Baptists friends like to say, “That’ll preach!” Indeed. Who likes to play alone? Who wants to keep the wonders of worms to himself? Dissection or crushing is much more enjoyable together, right? But no matter how clear this lesson is, so many of us like to play alone. “I don’t need a community,” “All we need is family time.” “Those people are different; I like to stay safe from their weirdness,” “They send their kids to public schools, let’s make sure we don’t infect ourselves,” “That person has nothing to teach me, so why should I spend time with her,” “Those crazy libertines, they drink wine; we’ll stay away from them because they might get drunk,” “I don’t want to have anyone over this month (or this year), it takes too much time to cook a meal.” These are all ways of saying, “I like to play alone.” Toys, gifts, music, worship, worms, bubbles are best enjoyed together. Make that your standard; then, a little alone play time becomes refreshing and even restorative.