Getting Unstuck Is Child’s Play
The way of the Puddle Warrior is filled with curiosity and adventure. I feel fortunate to be able to walk beside the Master and learn his mysterious ways. When I take time to really notice, I find the gifts of his simple play.
Mason, my two and half-year-old grandson, loves puddles and mud. Each week when he comes for his play date, he wants to go out in search of puddles. If there isn’t any, we have to make them. Then he can play his favourite game. STUCK. He brings with him an assortment of cars, trucks, buses, or construction vehicles. If the puddles are big enough, his bike is a great tool as well.
Each vehicle has its turn of driving into the puddle, sometimes being immersed completely. Then he announces gleefully, STUCK. Forever chatting about what is going on, I get the full commentary of how he is going to get this car out of the mud. He gets another vehicle to come and help to pull, push or tow it out of the mud. Sometimes it even includes a helicopter lift.
As I watched him yesterday in the hours of play, covered in mud, I found the lesson from the Puddle Warrior. Getting stuck is not a bad thing. Getting stuck gives us the opportunity to find a new way. It opens up our imagination to something else. We are able to look around and find solutions. It expands our minds.
For Mason, it is a growth experience. How can I do this differently? What else can I do? His mind is forever expanding, his capacity is infinite. He reminds us that the best tway for us to learn, grow and solve the problems of the world, is to put our gumboots on, splash around in puddles, play in the mud, get dirty. Allow yourself to get stuck and see that as a potential to open up new possibilities.
At the end of the day, when your boots are covered in mud, your soaking wet and you come in and dry off, you can sit with a warm cuppa and know you have had a successful day. You have walked the way of the Puddle Warrior.
Do you have a STUCK? Connect with Andrea and see if The Way of the Puddle Warrior can help you.
Originally published at https://andreaputting.com.au on August 4, 2021.