The Power of Play

So if I were writing this in a newsgroup or message board I'd have to start it with "OT"--or, Off Topic. It's not really about quilting. Sorry. But it's about puppies. And who can resist a puppy?

A few days ago, we brought a new addition into our menagerie--an 8-week-old Golden Retriever puppy named Sam. He's about as fuzzy and cute as a puppy can get. Spencer, our almost-four-year-old of indeterminate ancestry, isn't sure this was such a good idea. She spent the better part of the first 48 hours completely avoiding him and giving us baleful looks. She was particularly offended when I brought him up into my home office yesterday--she has definitely viewed that as her special space with Mom. No way I can avoid it, though--I have to have him within site to be on puppy patrol when no one else is home. So Spencer and Sam are engaged in a very careful territory dance in the office, trying to figure out which corner of the room each of them will be claiming for their own. She's never nipped at him, but she did growl and bare her teeth at him a couple of times when he didn't quite figure out that "enough was enough".

But outside? Outside is a different matter. Yesterday, for the first time, the two dogs actually played together. My husband got them started, wrestling with both of them together until they finally just cut out the middle-man and went off on their own. Now they pretty regularly play together when they're both outside. Sam can't quite keep up with Spencer yet--she's got a lot of energy and he's still just a sleepy little baby boy. But they have fun in short little chunks of time.

Inside? Spencer's still trying to figure out just why she has to share her people with the encroacher. But she's slowly warming up to him. She doesn't run quite so far from him when he tries to lick her chin, and she doesn't give us quite so heart-breaking a look whenever he comes near. They were even sleeping within a few inches of each other earlier this evening, although she had her back to him. Baby steps. Baby steps.

All of this has made me think about the power of play. I've often used that premise when I've been working with volunteer teams--in the same manner as the proverb states, "the family that plays together, stays together," the teams that play together tend to work better together. Seeing it in action with the Canine Kingdom in my home, however, really drives home the point. It is through play that Spencer and Sam are slowly becoming friends. It is through play that we can be closer to our family, our friends, our co-workers. Come to think of it, it's through play we become closer to ourselves--isn't that what quilting is all about, after all? Aren't we just playing with colors, patterns, techniques in an effort to allow our creative selves full reign?

Ah, I was able to bring it back to quilting in the long run. I guess I'm never that far from the topic, am I?