It\u2019s a new year. \u00a0I have been happily anticipating moving from the storyteller role into the door teacher role. \u00a0Thankfully another teacher really wanted to tell the story consistently throughout the spring. \u00a0And so when I showed up to class two weeks ago and again last week to absence, I found myself looking at my own expectations. \u00a0This is a big part of my journey in Spirit Play and shows up in many different ways. \u00a0It\u2019s that moment when you show up with one idea and then something totally different happens.<\/p>\n
And so I came to class having not prepared to tell the story and then needed to decide how to meet the moment. \u00a0Since I taught the story role all last year, I knew the stories, or at least their basic outlines and after a quick consultation with my fellow teachers, I assumed the storyteller role. \u00a0I can imagine another time where this quick change would have un-centered me and where I would have been disappointed. \u00a0I can hear the old script in my head creating unhappiness because I wanted something different to happen. \u00a0Things didn\u2019t go my way. \u00a0But, they did go a way and gratefully, I was able to go the way that the moment was going. \u00a0This is that moment of \u201cyes\u201d that improv is famous for. \u00a0The rule is to say yes to whatever story line is presented to you and continue on. \u00a0This is a spiritual principle too. \u00a0To accept the present moment as it is allows one a certain peace and freedom.<\/p>\n
This aspect of flow or allowing the fullness of the moment is also an aspect of delightful play. \u00a0How many times have we heard our children build a story by saying yes to each other and, of course, heard tears and protests when the action of play is stopped by a no. \u00a0How wonderful to be in that opening and surprising place of being able to say yes. \u00a0I have a friend who works in a middle school. \u00a0There are many times where she needs to say no in her work. \u00a0Instead of no, she is trying to say, \u201cyes, and\u2026.\u201d. \u00a0She says that this sometimes works beautifully, calling both parties into a creative process rather than a power struggle.<\/p>\n
In our spirit play class, we try to wonder in the spirit of yes. \u00a0We try to gently call each other into respectful speech and action by finding the yes in the situation we\u2019re in. \u00a0We try to say yes when we show up to what we don\u2019t expect. \u00a0We try to find some kind of yes so that we can fully experience what is unfolding and don\u2019t get stuck seeing everything through a lens of disappointment or resistance. \u00a0Where do you find yourself in a space of yes? \u00a0When you want to say no, is there a way to play around to find a hidden yes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s a new year. \u00a0I have been happily anticipating moving from the storyteller role into the door teacher role. \u00a0Thankfully another teacher really wanted to tell the story consistently throughout the spring. \u00a0And so when I showed up to class two weeks ago and again last week to absence, I found myself looking at my own expectations. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}