Play like a child

By Steven Polley

Director, Office of Youth Ministry

A couple of weeks ago I was attending our annual Region IX Youth Directors meeting at Prairie Star Ranch in the Archdiocese of Kansas City. Prairie Star Ranch is actually the camp site for their camping program. They have a beautiful facility so it works very well for us to hold our meetings.

Our Wednesday morning prayer was led by the director and associate director for the Grand Island, Nebraska diocese. For their prayer, they began by putting out different toys that we may have played with as we were growing up: a jump rope, teddy bear, football and several other items as well. As part of the prayer we were invited to think about and share one of our fondest childhood memories of play.

It was enjoyable as everyone listened to stories from playing hide and seek to playing in the snow. What was so nice was that for these few short minutes 15 adults were not worrying about the next e-mail, what needed to be done in their office or the next agenda item for our meeting. Everyone was taking a step back from our hectic lives, and entering into the memories childhood and growing up.

I guess for myself, this has become an even more memorable time in my life. Not because of what took place during the prayer, but what had happened just an hour earlier before breakfast. At Prairie Star Ranch the main building houses a big dance floor that can be used for meeting space, a big lounge area with chairs, couches, and two pool tables. Here too is the dining hall and tables for eating. The wife of the camp director is in charge of the dining hall and together they have three small girls.

I had come into the lounge area where we had our meeting tables set up. I was just getting ready to turn on the laptop so I could begin preparing for the meeting and my job of leading the meeting and taking minutes. Before, I could do anything the oldest of the girls came up and asked, “Will you shoot pool with me?” Of course, I was thinking about all of the things that I needed to do, and that maybe I would be better off in saying what I wanted to do. I paused for a second or two, but in the end I said sure.

We went down to one of the pool tables, the little girl racked the balls, showed me where the chalk was at for my pool cue, and proceeded to tell me how important the chalk was. By the time breakfast was ready, her little sister had shown up and together they pretty well were able to push the balls around and get them all in the pockets. I think I had two shots in the entire game. But for a few short minutes, through divine grace, I was able to forget what I thought I should be doing and hopefully helped form a childhood memory with these two young ladies.

I really did not give this much thought until the prayer time when the director from Grand Island mentioned that he had observed this entire conversation, had seen me pause, and wondered what I was going to do. I think he, like myself, realized how easy it would have been to say no and go on with our business, and he saw how important this short encounter truly was.

As I look back on this, and share this story with others, many think that it was the Holy Spirit that made me say yes. I don’t disagree, but I sense that it was probably more my grandfather nudging me to say yes, as Grandpa, no matter how busy he was, would always find the time to spend with children. For this, all I can say is thank you Grandpa for continuing to be a presence in my life.

As we look to these summer months, I invite you to take some time and remember your childhood and the games played. I invite you to find the time to step away from the many summer activities that occupy so much time and to enter into a time of play. As Jesus said, become like little children and through this find a peace that allows you to more clearly hear God’s voice.