I've been thinking a lot this year about the importance of Play. The key thing about play is that it can only happen in the absence of self-consciousness. If you're going to play you need the freedom to do the thing without anxiety about being 'too' anything - too loud, too messy, too bold, too wasteful, too wrong, too blue, too big, too small, to many mistakes, too spread out, too 'me' or too not what someone else likes. And without anxiety about being 'not enough' - not perfect enough, finished enough, efficient enough.
This year I've been practicing doing things un-self-consciously. I try to do things without following patterns, with no thought about a finished project, without worrying about doing it wrong. I'm not very good at it yet but I have been able to get to know a long neglected part of me again - the messy, inefficient, irresponsible part of me that is brave enough to try some new things and break new ground. That's where growth happens.
