Painting Rocks Yellow
And how imagination can heal.
Pirates are one of two ways to get this kid’s attention. If it isn’t pirates or Captain America, don’t expect to pique any interest. Right now, I teach math and reading to him through play and imagination in similar ways to I worked through mental health issues with another by playing the floor is lava.
I played the floor is lava for eight days straight in the woods of the Pisgah National Forest. And maybe it’s a slight exaggeration, but it truly can’t be much of one.
For the sake of HIPAA, we’ll call this kiddo Lazer (because he was a really amazing and interesting kid, but harmful in the way those lasers in spy movies are).
Lazer didn’t respond to much of anything. Not pirates, not Captain America, not the possibility of more treatment, just play. In a hiking based treatment program, it can be difficult to move with a kid that just stares off into the abyss of the trees.
Until you start playing the floor is lava. At that point, you need to try and keep up. Lazer could soar between logs and dodge trees as he sprinted head-on into the forest like he really was escaping a Vesuvius sized lava flow.
When Lazer’s imagination was put into play, the trauma of his past and learning disabilities of the present seemed to take to the sideline for a brief, beautiful, glowing moment.
Imagination has more power than we ever give it credit for. Imagination can give a torch to lead people through the darkness that mental health struggles can be.
People are pushed into boxes for their entire lives and in the end, it brings them to another box trying to analyze why they are so unsettled by the boxes they live in. Not to discredit therapy or therapists, I have benefitted immensely from them both, but we don’t play enough. We don’t let go and use our imagination to transport us to worlds that are better, where we can learn how to make this world better.
The next time you see anyone reading a thick fantasy book in a cafe, strike up a conversation, ask them how imagination has changed their lives. When you have a spare two hours, listen to Patrick Rothfuss, author of Name of the Wind, talk about mental health, and his own struggles with it.
Theraplay is a newer form of using play to help boost mental health and resolve trauma. The beauty of it is that there is little to no talk therapy aspect of it. You play, you learn from play, and that’s the end of it. For kids that struggle to communicate verbally, have a speaking disability, or are simply too young to really understand the idea of therapy, play brings out a world of options.
What I’m now learning is that imagination doesn’t just teach us to overcome barriers and help us to find our way to a happy life. Imagination, if used right, teaches us everything there is to life. It opens doors that our reality tells us are locked for good. It teaches us perspective, teaches us empathy, it teaches us to love. Today it taught math and tomorrow it will teach reading.
We painted rocks yellow and for a pirate loving five-year-old, they turned into gold.
