Avoidance Play or Deep Thinking?

This week I couldn't wait to get to work on my alternate ego, my 'empowered, fully-embodied' player, The Intrepid Pilgrim, as I call her, taking her off the page on which I had drawn her and colored her and making her come to life, so to speak.  I have soooo many other pressing concerns, especially some writing projects that are looming large and causing me some mental stress, but as I opened my backpack the evening after our play seminar, instead of taking out my books and notes related to those projects, and even before taking out my laptop (imagine!), I grabbed my bits and scaps of cloth, yarn and tagboard, got out some scissors, tape, and a couple of colored markers. What was I thinking?! Clearly, I was avoiding my writing, right?

 Well, I guess, yes, and no. As I worked on my player, I thought more about her, the characteristics I had given her in the resume that I wrote for her. She's all about trekking along and collecting her thoughts, taking her time to gather them all together, putting them in her satchel safe and sound so that she can go off  to a place where she can pull them out, and put them together in a meaningful way. And that's exactly what I found myself doing -- collecting my thoughts in a very content and relaxed way! As I look back on it now, some of the things I was thinking about during my work 'played' out in the writing I did this weekend. My mind, while relaxed and engaged in 'thinking about collecting my thoughts' as the embodied player at one level, was actually clicking along helping me organize some of my ideas for how to approach my work, how to sort out the ideas I was putting randomly, piece by piece into my satchel. Because I wasn't 'thinking about my thinking' at the time, the flow wasn't disturbed by this metacognition.

So, was I playing, I'd say, "yes." Was I working, "not sure." This is something we were all 'supposed to do' so that's work, right? It was productive and fun for me and it paid off in the end with a clearer head, less stress, and better organization as I began my writing. Do I understand play better, "again, I'm not sure!"