We Play in Trees Encourages Adults to Incorporate Recreation Into Their Routines

“Playing can look like anything, but the act of it is incredibly powerful and magnetic.”

We Play in Trees (Courtesy We Play in Trees)
By Sara Giza

After taking leave from work due to family medical needs, Geneva Bennett began reflecting on her life and how she wanted the rest of it to go. That internal existential discussion led her two years ago to create something incredibly joyful: We Play in Trees, an event-planning platform that encourages adults to incorporate recreation into their routines.

“I asked myself what kind of work and activities brought me joy? What was I doing and where was I when I felt the most alive?” Bennett explains. “I think experiencing a collective pause of sorts helped me settle a bit into pausing parts of my own life and asking myself some extremely important and extremely tough questions. I wanted to look back on my life and know that I chose it on purpose.”

Having always enjoyed being active, Bennett was drawn to the possibilities that playgrounds provide, including the freedom to try things out and experiment with no pressure.

“The connection to ourselves that happens when we move our bodies and having that movement be fueled by curiosity, wonder, joy and fun strums the chords of our spirit directly,” she says. “It awakens the parts of us that we have forgotten existed, forgotten how to listen to. Playing can look like anything, but the act of it is incredibly powerful and magnetic.”

We Play in Trees’ first event was a skate session at Oaks Park Roller Rink in January 2022. Since then, Bennett has launched a wide variety of other playful monthly events, including an introduction to rock climbing, a silent disco, a painting class and plant identification walks. Individuals can also sign up for one-on-one or small-group Recess Sessions, and the website is advertising a four-day retreat at a yet-to-be-named location in summer 2024.

“I hope that people discover a remembering in their hearts, a recognition in their spirit of their own beauty and worthiness, the connectedness, and feeling alive,” Bennett says. “The feeling in their bodies of joy is worth listening to, worth honoring and worth letting lead them.”

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