Games

In my down days a few days ago, I wanted to go to a place where I could run, swim, and eat. A playful place to feed the energy I wanted to feel in my bones. Biking, moving, wind blowing my hair, warm grass between my bare toes, I wanted to feel alive.
I thought of the games we played in school and they were boring most of them. First waiting to get picked for the team. I was usually one of the last ones. Kick ball, soft ball, even volley ball required standing, waiting for your turn or being bored in the outfield. No wonder a girl with an active imagination felt it was torture to play these games. Tag could be fun, if you were being chased. Hide-n-seek used that imagination, but hardly really action filled.
When I rode my bike, I was an Indian or as we say now, Native American. The old bike was War Paint, because it was spotted. Even as a small girl, my hobby horse that I bounced on took me places. I fed that horse long grass, and I sucked a little of the white ends, too. I was a cowgirl with that horse.
At school, if I weren't forced to play kickball, I found someone to pretend with me that we were horses. We could run freely. No foot/eye coordination to kick a rust red rubber ball did I have to possess. No being laughed at for striking out. I felt free.
Games that I did like kept us all moving, like dodge ball. I did like Red Rover when I was small. In high school, we all liked pillow polo, using nerf balls and bludgeoning sticks with nerf material ends. When I worked in the nurse's station, I knew we'd be busy when we played pillow polo, with injuries. I suppose I would have liked soccer, if it had been popular, like it is now. That is an active sport.
But to stand around to wait for my turn to be embarrassed did not thrill me. I found it boring and I couldn't play. Even if we could have read, but that wouldn't have shown team spirit.
Sometimes we just need the free spirit of play, even when we're adults. Maybe even more so then.