PLAYTITUDE #7: CREATING THINGS WITH BEAUTY AND PURPOSE CAN BRING OUT THE PLAYFUL (AND THE GRATEFUL)

There is excitement buzzing at my house.  In two months, on May 3, my daughter, Rachel, is getting married.  Happiness is spilling over as we gear up for the festivities.  I have my ‘to do’ list and some of it is creative and fun—and it helps out for the wedding planning—so all the better. 

Rachel asked me and my son, Ben, to put together a slide show for the rehearsal dinner.  A number of people have been sending us photos and Ben and I have been discussing music to accompany the slides.  He is a music whiz, so I will defer to him in that department.  I have enjoyed looking over old photos and revisiting memories as I create the sequence to display the photos.  l am enjoying thinking about how I can creatively show both Rachel’s and her finance, Sam’s life as young children and teens and how they have blended their life as they are moving toward marriage…creating a montage through photos and song.  Pouring over the photos has triggered memories that only enhance the joy of this occasion.  Pure fun and I get to play with my son to help create it. 

I am also helping to make the table markers.  We decided it would be fun to have tables be labeled by addresses and places in their lives (both separate and together).  So we are creating table tops that represent our Cincinnati home where Rachel arrived as a newborn, freshly home from the hospital, as well as other place markers on her path toward this commitment.  Both will have their singular markers and then there will be their together markers.  People coming into the reception will find their address at the table that they are sitting.   

Participating in these activities has created fun as we put together something of beauty and purpose.  Are there ways that you create in this way?

I have several friends that are artists and create with their hands in different ways.  One a potter, another a weaver, and another a seamstress.  They take raw material and create something of both beauty and use.  For a recent birthday I was the recipient of gifts from these wonderful women.  My potter friend gave me a beautiful mug from which I now drink my morning tea.  My weaver friend gave me a lilac scarf which adds color to my life.  My seamstress friend gave me a purse, sewn with stiches of love and now carried by me, a holder for the practical parts of my life.  What a gift to be able to extend to someone else the fruits of the work that comes from hands.     

It is fun to create things that are beautiful.  Creating beauty brings out the playful in me.  And when they are purposeful—well, in a too busy life—all the better.    

PLAY-TITUDE #7:  CREATING THINGS WITH BEAUTY AND PURPOSE CAN BRING OUT THE PLAYFUL (AND THE GRATEFUL)

 

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