The Weight of Play

I spent this morning trying to clear out the shed in my backyard. It was full of broken things—a rusted rake, a chair with a missing leg, and piles of wood from a fence that fell down last winter. It felt heavy, looking at all that decay. But then, my neighbor’s kids started playing tag in the alleyway behind my house. They were laughing so loudly, weaving through the piles of scrap metal and old tires like they were navigating a playground built just for them. They didn’t seem to notice the mess at all. It made me realize how much we adults let the state of our surroundings dictate our mood. We see the wreckage and we feel the burden of it. But maybe there is a way to move through the broken pieces of our lives without letting them stop our momentum. If they can find joy in the middle of a ruin, why do I find it so hard to do the same?

Luis Alberto Poma Criollo has captured this exact spirit in his image titled Waiting for the Moment. It is a beautiful reminder that joy often persists in the most unlikely places. What do you think allows us to keep running when everything around us feels like it is falling apart?