Hooray for Play!

Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post prompt for today was “-ay.” She encouraged us to  play with a word ending in “-ay.”

Say what you want. Not what you don’t want. That’s a theme for me this weekend, since Thursday, when I started working on a blog post for next week about some one encouraging that. But back to today!

If I say I don’t want this or that, or whine that I don’t have enough TIME, to do this or that. I’m creating negative energy. What I need to say is, I want more time! More time to play! More time to play with art, and color, more time to play with words! Like this! I’m playing right now, with words! I love it!

Monday I took a vacation day to play. I’d taken off Thursday to work on the house, and Friday, as usual to write. I wrote the word “play!” on my calendar for Monday. So my husband and I took the tandem kayak out to play. It had been months since we’d gone kayaking. Maybe even a year, who knows. So many things get in the way of play.

So we paddled across the basin to a small island. I had been worried, cause I have a habit of worrying, that I would be so out of shape, I wouldn’t be able to make it to the island, or really that my husband would have to do a lot more paddling than me. I did stop paddling about halfway across the basin, and he stopped too. We just sat there, looking at the water sparkling with sun drops. It was quiet. I realized that the more open the water is, the fewer landmarks, or objects there are to help you see that you are making progress. The little strip of beach on the island finally started to get closer. I guess it might have taken about 15 or 20 minutes to paddle to the island. I really have no idea, but it seemed like a long time. But we made it! Yay!

There was another couple there, each with their own kayak, and we chatted a bit, but mostly we just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the island. There are no man made structures there, just a little trash left by campers. We’ll have to bring a trash bag next time to collect some. My husband did find an old fire extinguisher and brought it home to recycle. The trash was hidden behind some bushes, so it was easy to look at the pristine parts of the island: the little crabs and minnows in the shallows, the white egrets and the brown pelicans. It was so quiet! Most of the time, all we heard were bird sounds and gently lapping water and the breeze in the marsh grass.

After relaxing on the island for about 30 minutes, and talking with a man who came in on a paddle board, we shoved off. This time, we paddled closer to the edge of the basin, near the marsh grass. We stopped a couple of times just to rest and listen to the quiet, and watch the egrets hunting and the pelicans diving for fish. We saw fish jump out of the water, and my husband said he wants to bring a fishing pole next time.

We worked hard paddling to and from the island. At least I worked hard. My husband said it was a good work out. And yet, this work was play. I needed it. I need more play!

Hooray for play!

If you’d like to join in the fun of paddling along the Saturday Stream of Consciousness visit:

http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-1515/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!