Making Playtime

Making Playtime

How do you play? What entertains you? What engages your attention?

Being active is one of the fun things about being a grownup. Now, that doesn’t mean entering kick-boxing tournaments, although thats good for some people, it means finding things to do in the world that you love doing.

This is one of those things for me, writing to you every day. I also love to create things. I’m knitting socks right now. Sometimes it’s art, sometimes it’s soup. Sometimes, it’s hours of conversation with a brilliant friend. Lately, I’ve also been on a jigsaw puzzle kick.

I like to do stuff.

Didn’t always be that way. There was a time in my life, a dark time, when what I did was hate, get high, sleep a lot. Stopped crafting, stopped cooking, stopped moving my body, stopped reading. If you know me, you know that last one was a major alarm bell. It’s the one that finally got my attention.

Being engaged with the joys life offers us is one of the ways we feel alive, lively, and happy. Finding big things, and small things, to take joy in, helps us savor our existence, and feel connected with our world.

Why do I have fun? How do I play? What makes me adventurous?

At the very least, we have imagination. Now, I’ve known a bunch of people who claim to have no imagination. These claims were false. They just needed to redefine what imagination means.

If you can worry, you have imagination, you are just aren’t using your powers for good. If you are jealous, or have envy, you have imagination. If you can plan a day, you have imagination.

Now, take that awesome superpower and turn it to good use, coming up with fun stuff that lightens your heart. Maybe you like to play games, cards, or arcade games. Maybe you like tromping around in the woods. Maybe you like to mess with clay, or paints, or chalk. Maybe you like to take classes, or try new restaurants, or watch old movies. The point is less about what you are doing and more about engaging.

When we actively and positively engage with our world, we keep things loose and light. When we actively have fun, we stay cheerier, and are spreading joy.

What makes me connect? Why do I enjoy myself? How am I entertained?

When I was learning how to have fun, I discovered that a lot of how I entertained myself made me feel awful. I was a news junkie, for one things, I watched depressing movies, I hung out in dark bars on sunny days. As I chose to lighted up my life, I started unchoosing things like that, things that made me blue, or feel grim, or hate people. These things do not move me forward. When I have feelings about slavery or animal abuse, I address them, do what I can in the moment, and go back to the light. I do no one any good by wallowing in that kind of entertainment, and I do damage to my self.

How have I changed from hanging back to engaging with my world?

(c) Pam Guthrie all rights reserved 03042014

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