Gift Number Six

Playful. When were you last playful?

Remember when you were a kid and on a summer day you’d got to a friend’s house next door or on your block - and you’d smoosh your face into the screen on the screen door - and knock - and feel the knocking reverberate through your head? You’d catch a glimpse of your friend’s mom and you’d ask if your friend could come out and play.

You know - you’re still a great playmate. Whether it’s riding bikes, or making a hideout in the backyard, or inventing a game, or playing horse - you have a knack for play. You could even say that you have a gift for it.

Playfulness for adults makes us more resilient, more hopeful, more connected. It can energize and destress. There’s a spontaneity about play that’s just delightful. And play is so wholeheartedly loving-the-moment - it’s like a gummy vitamin for your soul.

We’re coming into that time of year when if the weather’s just right - we could get just the right weather for - a perfect day of sledding, the best snow for making a snowman, or maybe the warmest winter night we’ll have in a bit to go outside and playfully gaze up at the sky and search for constellations.

What were your favorite ways to be playful? Was it legos? Was it yo-yo? Remember the first time you played with an etch-a-sketch or a slinky? Thumb-wrestling?

Most of these gifts take no more time to meaningful engage in than it takes to read one of these posts. It’s not about complicating our lives - but rather freeing the best parts of ourselves up to be more in our lives - right now - with those we love most.

Who do you want to play with again? A sibling? A best friend from long ago - or not so long ago? Maybe there was a game or sport your loved to play with your spouse when you were first dating. Maybe there’s a way you love playing with your kids. Remember playing so hard that you just burst out into fits of giggles and laughter? Remember time flying by? Reliving those memories is almost as invigorating as playing again. Reliving them - over the phone - or whatever - we have so many ways to communicate - with our old play-buddy again is even better.

Take a well-deserved break from all the non-play things you’ve been adulting-through and spend a moment recalling a treasured moment of awesome play. Aaaah. What a time! Let’s do more of that!

I’d really love to keep writing about this - but I gotta go smoosh my face into someone’s screen door and see if they can come out and play..