Double Doodle Play – I See the Beauty of Roses

Amy Choi
Ever since I was small, I have never been fond of roses. When I was fourteen, for the first time of my life, I received a pink rose from a boy. I thanked him politely but thought, “I don’t like roses?

Today, I met roses again. It was a clear spring day in May. I was going to lead students to learn about “Perception As Art?on the second day of the Double Doodle Play workshop. This morning, I randomly selected the song “The Rose?from my song folder. After listening to it, I thought it was very suitable and decided to use it as the background music while the students are engaging in “floating doodle? Later on, as I was walking around the room looking at students?doodles, a bright red rose in the classroom attracted me. At that moment, I had a sudden urge to use this rose as my topic of a double doodle. When I was drawing, I suddenly realized the song which I chose and the topic of my painting is actually the same! I asked myself, “how did this happen??Then, as I was reading the topics I gave to the students – “I see truth, I see kindness, I see beauty, I gently look at everything around me…?I finally understood that this combination is also designed for me! Then, my ears listening to the lovely music, my heart absorbing the lyrics, my eyes slowly forming roses?shape, lines, colour, texture, contrast etc and my hands stroke by stroke slowly drew a rose. Just at this moment, time seemed to have paused for me. I was very touched and thankful, as I could finally see the beauty in roses!

Here, I would like to give this rose to every student who accompanied me to explore Double Doodle Play, thank you for their participation, sharing and support. I would like to give it to all my kinesiology teachers, especially the late John Thie, D.C., Carla Hannaford, Ph.D. and Glenys Leadbeater. I would also like to give it to the founder of this course, Gail E. Dennison, whose attitudes towards merging learning with arts, arts with play and play with life enlightens me. And most importantly, I would like to give this rose to you. I trust that you, too, will see life’s truth, kindness and beauty.