Endless play

"What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the keys to your earthly pursuits" Carl Jung

Hi there! Welcome to this month’s installment of Sounds of a Story. I’m so glad you are here. Sounds of a Story is place where I share new original music and the stories and memories that inspire it. If you would like to help me reach others who might like this post, hit that little heart at the bottom. Thank so much for reading & listening.

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My bike is at the gate, thrown haphazardly on the ground. The green and pink shell tracksuit top I got for my 9th birthday, strewn across the handlebars is glinting in the sunlight. We have been waiting for the hay to be baled in the field behind our house for what seems like an eternity and now it’s finally done. First the tractor arrived, with the mower attached, methodically driving up and down the field cutting the long grass and then, it came with the baler in tow. All morning, I’ve been cycling around our house, climbing the tree beside the stone seat near the road and playing in the woods next door while the work is finished. At long last, I climb to the top of one of the big round bales and lie on top of it, watching the clouds roll by, picking out shapes. There are so many games to be played in this field before the farmer comes to take the hay away. I could spend hours like this, making up games with my brother while my Mum kept an eye on us out the kitchen window.

Recently,

Jane Ratcliffe

published a conversation with author

Austin Kleon

for her wonderful Substack publication (you can find it here, it is full of gold!) Since reading it, this memory has been in my mind’s eye daily. It is so vivid, it almost feels like I can reach out to touch it. In one part of the conversation Austin talks about the magic of play for playings sake, reminiscing on how his children played when they were little and it struck such a chord with me. As I watch my own children play, who are four and one, I am transfixed. Mesmerized by their ability to get lost in play. For hours they can build creations, search for treasure (currently rocks), make up games and drag around a golf club (the one year old’s favourite pastime!) It fascinates me. It reminds me to check myself and tap into my playfulness, a playfulness that we so often loose in the tax of being an adult. In one sense, this page has become a springboard to play, for me.

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This month, I wanted to share some things I am reading and listening to. The past weeks have been full of nostalgia, prompted my many things, including some of these.

Reading

• Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy

• Looking for Alaska by John Green

• Alexis Davis
  stellar Substack with brilliant recommendations for reading with the young humans in your life.

Listening

• Electric Adolescence for a deep dive back into the 1980s

• FogChaser
  transporting me back to a really special time with this dreamy lo-fi track

  Anthemon

• The inimitable

  Patti Smith
  singing Georgia

  Georgia for Georgia

Thanks for being here! I’d love to hear from you. What did you spend hours doing as a child? What do you do now that turns minutes into hours? What prompts nostalgia for you?

Recorded & mixed at Test Tube Audio, Austin, Tx