Look at the pictures above. Do you remember what life was like as a child when you hardly had any worries or concerns, heartbreak lasted only a few hours, you could run around all day long like the energizer bunny, and the cold and snow didn't bother you because you were playing in it with your best friends? When life seemed simpler and so care free? When you couldn't wait to grow up and be the best teacher, firefighter or actor there has ever been? When you felt like the best days were ahead or you as a "big person"?
I remember those days like a distant dream, and I long for them more often than I'd like to admit. Growing up ain't all it's made to be when we were kids. Sure, we get to move out of the house, make our own decisions and but whatever we want. But that right there is the hard part. We are now adults and that means we now are responsible for doing things our parents did that we didn't really think about as kids: paying the rent, making and preparing our own food, dealing with every aspect of life that we would love to just hire someone else to do. And not only that, as we mature, our eyes finally see the real problems and evils in the world, which lend only more stress, worry and fear to our daily lives. We work, work, work, work and worry, worry, worry, which drains us of joy and energy we used to have in ample store. We become pessimists instead of optimists. Snow means dangerous roads and getting late to work, not enchanting white powder we can play and sled in.
Steve Eaton of the Deseret News said this, and I couldn't agree more:
"It’s easy [as we get older] to see how we gain more inhibitions than Legos. When I was a real journalist working in a newsroom hundreds of years ago, cheerful people were told to go home and sleep it off. Life works us into rows, the traffic backs up and then soon it’s just one smog-filled day after the other. We couldn’t dance about outside even if we wanted to. We might breathe the air."
So true, right?!? RIGHT!!! Let's get out and dance in the rain, shall we?
So what do we do about it? I"ll tell you what I do about it. I make and take time to play. Yes, play. No matter how old we get, we all need to play. I'm a total 4-year-old at heart and on top of that get paid to play with children for a living, so you'd think that would be enough to get my "play time" in, eh? No way!! I may play five out of seven days a week, but I need to let loose like I did when I was a kid, letting go of inhibitions and just doing whatever my heart desires. We need to work, yes, but we also need to take time for a little thing called recreation. Fun. Play. All of the above!!! If we don't allow ourselves-yes allow-play we don't have balance in our lives and that will only dim our lights faster.
So go out and have some fun! Don't know what to do? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Whatever it is, JUST DO IT! Do something on the fly, right now if you can. If not, plan for it and then DO IT.
I had some great play time in the past month, and it has refreshed me physically, socially and emotionally. At the time I had some issues at home that were weighing heavy upon my heart and mind and needed some distance and distraction. Fortunately I had been booked for a one-week cruise and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time. I'd never cruised before and was anxious about it, but by the second day I was comfortable, and by the end didn't want to leave! I was able to let go of the issues and problems that awaited me back home, make lots of new friends and soak up warmth and sun that replenished my always achy body. It was adult play, pure and simple: zip-lining, snorkeling, dancing, shopping. I rode in an open jeep over a beautiful island in the sun and rain, enjoying each second as the wind whipped through my face and hair, not even caring that my hair was a completely ratted mess. Oh the freedom I felt! How good it felt to swim in the crystal clear, warm ocean waters, even though I got stung by a jellyfish. So wonderful and SOOOO needed.
A few days after I got home I got to play even more when my friends and I held a 'Big Kid Party', which means just what it says, a party where we let ourselves be kids again. We had kid food from goldfish to cookies and milk; cartoons ('Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers' anyone?); coloring books; Lincoln Logs-yes they still make them!; Legos; and other games we had from childhood. I went nuts. Absolutely NUTS!!! If a stranger had walked into my house they would have thought I was 1) completely ditsy or 2) high on something. I pranced about the living room like a 4-year-old, not caring what I looked or sounded like. I was most happy because I was with my closest friends.
And last weekend I got to play with my Grant family at our annual winter party at my uncle's cabin...snowmobiling baby!!!!! I LOVE snowmobiling!!! I was so excited to get out of the smoggy valley and into the crisp mountain air and zip around in a wide open field at 50-60 miles an hour on one of the greatest machines ever made. In our family we don't just ride snowmobiles, we catch Frisbees and footballs, pull tubes and do, as the men call it, "Time trials" to beat the clock from one end of the field to the other. The exhilaration you feel slicing through open powder can only be compared, in book, to galloping on a horse. Oh the FREEDOM!!!
It was a weekend with family, and that's what really made it so great. I got to play with the people who mean the most to me in my life, and I enjoyed every minute I could.
So while life goes on the daily grind grinds you down, take the time to play. Plop into the snow and make a snow angel, dance in the rain, sing aloud to your favorite song with your windows down in the car, play with a nephew or niece, take a day trip, watch a Disney movie or whatever it is that makes you feel joy the way you did when you were young. God wants you to be productive and successful, but above all He wants you to be happy. So go ahead, release your inner child. If anyone has a problem with that, tell them Robyn says it's okay :)
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