I am a lucky blogger in that I occasionally happen upon friends' stories or photos that capture my attention and I ask if I can share them with Zella readers.
This is just such a case.
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| "T" on one of his adventures - boots, cape and absolute focus while balancing on a log. |
This is Megan's recap of how the quote from "T" came about:
"It all came about while we were driving to school the other morning. He enjoys playing with ropes. They become anything from snakes, weapons, tools and in this case, zip lines. While driving, he had tied a rope to the passenger head rest in front of him and the other end to the safety handle. He said he made a zip line and had a little ninja figurine sliding down it. Then he noticed the slack of the rope and that it made another zip line, just shorter. He began joking around that I got the short zip line. I went with the joke and it made him laugh to think he had a longer zip line than me. He then proceeded to share the longer one with me and began talking about various lengths of zip lines."
The quote came after his playing with his ninja figurine and creating the zip line:
'THE WORLD IS MY ROPE SWING.'
As an advocate for children to make their own play choices and to be an active agent in making meaning of their world, I had one of those crinkly smiles on my face when I had first read "T"s quote and Megan's story. THIS is what I would wish for all children: The sense of freedom to create, the continued drive to play and be playful, and the gift to trust in one's relationship to something as an individual.
"T" seems to know at age 5 that he has power and has a place in the world - with or without a rope swing.
[ My special thanks to Megan and "T" for allowing me to share a slice of their family life here on Zella. Cheers to more adventures with ropes and ninjas. ]
