My twins started an after school drama camp last week. I had asked them last Monday: “If you could do anything as an extracurricular, what would it be?” This question came shortly after one of them had emphatically rejected basketball.
They both replied “acting.”
Luckily, there was already an established once a week acting program at their school that still had spots available.
So I quickly enrolled them, and they got to start on Thursday. After their first class, they ran to the car excitedly shouting: “Mom! We got to go to Drama Kids!”
“What did you do there?” I asked them.
They told me that they were partnered up and given two lines to start off. Then, they were supposed to come up with the rest of the story. I listened with a smile as they each recounted for me their mini-improv plays.
“And then he said… and then I said…”
After they were done giving me the rundown, they turned to each other and continued the play. Something about a lost finger that had been cut off. Even their stuffed animals chimed in. It felt like a whole stage production in my backseat.
I love that these two find joy in almost everything they do. But I really love that the most joy they find is in using their imaginations. They are constantly creating worlds that draw me right in. And they’ve been doing this since they could talk.
Recently, I realized that they remind me a bit of me as a child.
Not their self-assurance or their extroverted natures, mind you. But instead their ability to get lost in their imaginations.
In my head as a child, I’d come up with whole storylines, whole worlds inside my head when I was quiet and seemingly distracted.
I’m not sure I technically heard a song in a leaf like Mary Oliver… but there were many songs and music and dancing and stage performances that came alive just for me.
I wonder when the world got too noisy and drowned it all out…
I wonder if I can tap into this imagination once again and find it’s all still there…
Maybe I can.
After all, as Mary Oliver says, the song is still there singing. It never stopped.
