There is not a lot of playfulness in my life these days,
or adventure,
if I am to be truthful . . .
in some ways,
I think I have not really recovered from the pandemic
and its aftermath.
My parents died,
my brother died of covid,
finishing off any family blood ties I had left,
except for my son,
who is deeply involved in his life
on the other side of the country.
Both my beloved mother and not so beloved father-in-law are gone,
and so is the place we used to go to the shore.
Some aspect of playfulness has left me
or gone dormant;
I have my moments though . . .
I play with the cats,
exchange funny kisses with my husband that make us both laugh,
I talk to the birds,
and hug trees.
I enjoy the pleasures of the flesh,
breakfast in the morning,
and a new book now and then . . .
I am content.
When being together with some dear friends playing cards, a super simple cardgame where we all have pure fun playing it. Whenever there is possibility, we meet for an evening, someone is cooking for all, another brings a bottle of wine, another of us prepares a salad and we enjoy playing cards all evening with lots of laughter and pretended offendedness or sadness when loosing. It started during time of Corona, when we could meet with 4 people, this is something really great which has been created then where we enjoy this encounter all together.
Playfulness and adventure I find all over:
Playfulness occurs in my home with my dog and sometimes my hubby, with friends playing cards or going out, in the garden with the bunnies, birds and geckos. Adventure occurs whenever I go out – I never really know what will occur- if I run an errand, take a class, go for a walk, etc.
Each day is an adventure because it is unknown until experienced.
Second easy answer: My sweetheart! We make each other laugh, we make up silly rhymes and new lyrics to songs. (I did an entire set of lyrics for “Super Stripe” about our cat set to the song “Super Freak”: “He’s a super stripe, super stripe, he’s super stripey, meeeooow.”)
Third easy answer: That cat! Our house is decorated in Cat Toy-stravaganza. Right now he’s nested on some tissue paper we had in a big plastic crate, then I pulled it out on the floor for him to pounce on, find toys I hid underneath, generally make noise and be silly with it. I move his toys around, put some away for a while and bring them out weeks later to be brand new.
Another answer: We’re coming up on our wedding anniversary. A few years ago I started us on “X dates for X years”. A date doesn’t have to cost money; one of my favorites is when we go to a park, my husband flies a kite and I blow bubbles (which are great for telling him wind direction and speed).
This year it will be 18 dates for 18 years (our anniversary is July 7; yes, we got married 07-07-07). We started working on the idea list for this year this morning. #1 on the list: Shoestring Circus is coming to town and we already have tickets. This was one of our dates last year on their first trip to our town. We loved it and said it would be a date every year. This is like Cirque du Soleil–no animals, humans doing amazing things with their bodies and with storytelling. We’ll walk downtown, go to the circus, then get ice cream.
Every year we have some repeats and some new things so that’s where the adventure comes in. Adventure is all in how you approach an activity, after all. We haven’t gone camping in years and this year we may use our bikes to go to a nearby state park as a good test (with home around 13 miles away). We watched a chef show that featured Cambodian food and now we want to seek out a good Cambodian restaurant with vegetarian options for me. That’s an eating adventure. I just learned we have a free rural transit service linking our town to several small towns south of here, so maybe we hop a bus, go to a town, see what’s there, bus back.
I just ran the dog, and he is a silly boy, trying to sprint and play, bouncing around and smiling at me. We jogged for a good long while at one of the city’s parks, and he made me smile a lot. It was a mutual adventure.
My husband is very playful, so I often find playfulness in daily interactions with him. Although we can no longer travel, we do find a sense of adventure when we check out some new local spot that we hadn’t been to. In May, we went to the local agricultural extension office, where they have beautiful landscaping and a wheelchair-accessible path that goes through it. They had many different kinds of trees that were flowering. It was a fun adventure!
Our Master Gardener program has a small garden spot at the farmers’ market and sometimes has people there to answer questions. A lot of landscaping in a compact space with little winding paths, benches to sit on, different native plants. Love that.
Fun fact: The Master Gardener program originated at Washington State University, which is my alma mater. It’s situated in the breadbasket of the Palouse with a lot of rich soil from Glacial Lake Missoula. The program spread from there to land-grant universities across the country and now there are other Master XYZ programs, like Master Composter. Go Cougs!
I’ve gotten so much good information online from our local ag extension people, it never occurred to me that there was an actual location to visit! What a neat adventure. I’m going to look up ours now too.
I attended a retreat years ago and one of the speakers in her presentation said, “God wants us to play.” Having been raised to believe that God wanted me to be anything but playful, her words jarred me. It was a totally new concept to me that God had a wish that my life be playful but then my concept of God in those days was the old man on the throne who was always teaching that if you are having fun, you are probably being sinful. It would be many years before I discovered the concept of joy, the trustworthiness of Life itself.
As to where in my life I find playfulness and adventure? My answer: Wherever in life that I’m looking for it! I think it has to do with a frame of mind, an open heart, a willingness, a sense of humor, a thirst for presence, an understanding that we all have the need to be needed.
I found today’s meditation from Richard Rohr powerfully linked to Br. David’s quote for today: “Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” Here’s the link. Hope you have time to read the meditation. It’s a godd one. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/pathways-to-joy/
Joseph, your response made me smile. I en-joy-ed it and it prompted me to do a google search on the prefix “en.” This is what I found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: The prefix “en-” generally means “in,” “into,” or “cause to be.” It can be used to transform nouns and adjectives into verbs, often indicating a change of state or condition. It also can mean “cover with” or “provide with.”
I also learned it can be used as a suffix:
acts as a prefix put at the beginning or as a suffix put at the end to form new words. en + courage = encourage weak + en = weaken ‘en’ at the beginning or at the end of a word is not always a prefix or a suffix. It is then an integral part of the word.
I’m still pretty connected to playfulness and adventure. I hike or mountain bike at least once a week. I’m still finding new places or new routes to explore. I am incredibly fortunate to live in an area with tons of public land with endless miles of trails.
I also enjoy camping, once or twice a year. Again, out here in the western US, there are so many places to visit.
And then there’s music. I am an unschooled, unprofessional, amateur musician, and I enjoy getting to play around on different instruments.
Like all things, sometimes these pastimes can become work. Requiring practice, training, a bit of suffering, physical pain, sweat, planning, and lots of effort. Still, something makes me persist. I’ve always been like this. An instigator.
I find playfulness with my dog, Frida- she’s a high energy border collie/mini aussie mix and she keeps me on my toes and moving. When I first adopted her, she was anxious and difficult to handle. I was lucky to find an absolutely brilliant dog trainer who helped me and Frida learn to work with each other and now we go everywhere together. Playing with Frida takes me out of myself. I put on upbeat music while we wrestle with her toys and chase each other around the house (right now, it’s too hot in SC to play outside). Our group training classes are always an adventure- the trainer often pulling out new and interesting ways to teach our furry friends to be obedient and calm companions. It’s lovely to be around animal lovers who love their dog and in many cases, have adopted the shelter pet no one else would take because of their behavior. Watching these dogs evolve from anxious, reactive creatures into loyal and trusting companions is a joy.
Good for you for spending so much time with Frida and the trainer! As the owner of one of those previously unwanted, anxious, hyper shelter dogs myself, your story inspires me.
Being out on the sailboat, bike riding ,walking/hiking, cross country skiing and travel to new areas.
Was on the sailboat for 3 nights and now small craft warnings and high winds so back on land. Today is a bike ride.
Playfulness in taking Brady our family dog on adventures. My son took him yesterday for an adventure and it was funny to see
him all tuckered out last night.
I find these things when I’m out with our dogs. Finding a new park is fun. They get new smells, and I get to see different things. There’s a great park not too far away that is surrounded by woods with paths that wind thru them. It feels like being in the mountains, well maybe more like the foothills, but it’s a nice place to go for a shaded walk that’s not as busy as some of the parks closer to Uptown… although I love those, too! I also find playfulness without the dogs with my yoga practice, dancing, and going out with my husband. Although I must say, if we start dancing in front of the dogs, they jump up and join in! Especially our big dog, Ruger. He loves a good dance party!
It’s so funny how much Ruger loves it! You can just start to sway a bit, and his head will perk up. If you really start moving, he’ll jump up, grab a toy, and it’s on! The fact that he’s also about 100lbs makes it that much more fun 🙂
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There is not a lot of playfulness in my life these days,
or adventure,
if I am to be truthful . . .
in some ways,
I think I have not really recovered from the pandemic
and its aftermath.
My parents died,
my brother died of covid,
finishing off any family blood ties I had left,
except for my son,
who is deeply involved in his life
on the other side of the country.
Both my beloved mother and not so beloved father-in-law are gone,
and so is the place we used to go to the shore.
Some aspect of playfulness has left me
or gone dormant;
I have my moments though . . .
I play with the cats,
exchange funny kisses with my husband that make us both laugh,
I talk to the birds,
and hug trees.
I enjoy the pleasures of the flesh,
breakfast in the morning,
and a new book now and then . . .
I am content.
(or maybe
that’s just how I feel today) ♥
When being together with some dear friends playing cards, a super simple cardgame where we all have pure fun playing it. Whenever there is possibility, we meet for an evening, someone is cooking for all, another brings a bottle of wine, another of us prepares a salad and we enjoy playing cards all evening with lots of laughter and pretended offendedness or sadness when loosing. It started during time of Corona, when we could meet with 4 people, this is something really great which has been created then where we enjoy this encounter all together.
Playfulness and adventure I find all over:
Playfulness occurs in my home with my dog and sometimes my hubby, with friends playing cards or going out, in the garden with the bunnies, birds and geckos. Adventure occurs whenever I go out – I never really know what will occur- if I run an errand, take a class, go for a walk, etc.
Each day is an adventure because it is unknown until experienced.
What a nice new way to look at the chore of running errands, Cathie! It can be an adventure
Easy answer: Improv! So fun and freeing.
Second easy answer: My sweetheart! We make each other laugh, we make up silly rhymes and new lyrics to songs. (I did an entire set of lyrics for “Super Stripe” about our cat set to the song “Super Freak”: “He’s a super stripe, super stripe, he’s super stripey, meeeooow.”)
Third easy answer: That cat! Our house is decorated in Cat Toy-stravaganza. Right now he’s nested on some tissue paper we had in a big plastic crate, then I pulled it out on the floor for him to pounce on, find toys I hid underneath, generally make noise and be silly with it. I move his toys around, put some away for a while and bring them out weeks later to be brand new.
Another answer: We’re coming up on our wedding anniversary. A few years ago I started us on “X dates for X years”. A date doesn’t have to cost money; one of my favorites is when we go to a park, my husband flies a kite and I blow bubbles (which are great for telling him wind direction and speed).
This year it will be 18 dates for 18 years (our anniversary is July 7; yes, we got married 07-07-07). We started working on the idea list for this year this morning. #1 on the list: Shoestring Circus is coming to town and we already have tickets. This was one of our dates last year on their first trip to our town. We loved it and said it would be a date every year. This is like Cirque du Soleil–no animals, humans doing amazing things with their bodies and with storytelling. We’ll walk downtown, go to the circus, then get ice cream.
Every year we have some repeats and some new things so that’s where the adventure comes in. Adventure is all in how you approach an activity, after all. We haven’t gone camping in years and this year we may use our bikes to go to a nearby state park as a good test (with home around 13 miles away). We watched a chef show that featured Cambodian food and now we want to seek out a good Cambodian restaurant with vegetarian options for me. That’s an eating adventure. I just learned we have a free rural transit service linking our town to several small towns south of here, so maybe we hop a bus, go to a town, see what’s there, bus back.
Fun question!
I don’t think you need lessons in playing,
dear Barb,
but you could sure teach them. 🙂
I just ran the dog, and he is a silly boy, trying to sprint and play, bouncing around and smiling at me. We jogged for a good long while at one of the city’s parks, and he made me smile a lot. It was a mutual adventure.
My husband is very playful, so I often find playfulness in daily interactions with him. Although we can no longer travel, we do find a sense of adventure when we check out some new local spot that we hadn’t been to. In May, we went to the local agricultural extension office, where they have beautiful landscaping and a wheelchair-accessible path that goes through it. They had many different kinds of trees that were flowering. It was a fun adventure!
Our Master Gardener program has a small garden spot at the farmers’ market and sometimes has people there to answer questions. A lot of landscaping in a compact space with little winding paths, benches to sit on, different native plants. Love that.
Fun fact: The Master Gardener program originated at Washington State University, which is my alma mater. It’s situated in the breadbasket of the Palouse with a lot of rich soil from Glacial Lake Missoula. The program spread from there to land-grant universities across the country and now there are other Master XYZ programs, like Master Composter. Go Cougs!
Cool fun fact! I did not know that about the history of the Master Gardener program.
I’ve gotten so much good information online from our local ag extension people, it never occurred to me that there was an actual location to visit! What a neat adventure. I’m going to look up ours now too.
🙂
I attended a retreat years ago and one of the speakers in her presentation said, “God wants us to play.” Having been raised to believe that God wanted me to be anything but playful, her words jarred me. It was a totally new concept to me that God had a wish that my life be playful but then my concept of God in those days was the old man on the throne who was always teaching that if you are having fun, you are probably being sinful. It would be many years before I discovered the concept of joy, the trustworthiness of Life itself.
As to where in my life I find playfulness and adventure? My answer: Wherever in life that I’m looking for it! I think it has to do with a frame of mind, an open heart, a willingness, a sense of humor, a thirst for presence, an understanding that we all have the need to be needed.
I found today’s meditation from Richard Rohr powerfully linked to Br. David’s quote for today: “Joy is the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” Here’s the link. Hope you have time to read the meditation. It’s a godd one. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/pathways-to-joy/
I en-joy-ed that read Carol. Some good tips for a more pleasant life. Thanks.
Joseph, your response made me smile. I en-joy-ed it and it prompted me to do a google search on the prefix “en.” This is what I found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: The prefix “en-” generally means “in,” “into,” or “cause to be.” It can be used to transform nouns and adjectives into verbs, often indicating a change of state or condition. It also can mean “cover with” or “provide with.”
I also learned it can be used as a suffix:
acts as a prefix put at the beginning or as a suffix put at the end to form new words. en + courage = encourage weak + en = weaken ‘en’ at the beginning or at the end of a word is not always a prefix or a suffix. It is then an integral part of the word.
Wanted to share what I found!
Good Richard Rohr read, thank you Carol.
Wslking
Biking
Running
Tes parties
Music
Dance
Exercise videos
Nature trails
Bodies of water…
Super list!
I’m still pretty connected to playfulness and adventure. I hike or mountain bike at least once a week. I’m still finding new places or new routes to explore. I am incredibly fortunate to live in an area with tons of public land with endless miles of trails.
I also enjoy camping, once or twice a year. Again, out here in the western US, there are so many places to visit.
And then there’s music. I am an unschooled, unprofessional, amateur musician, and I enjoy getting to play around on different instruments.
Like all things, sometimes these pastimes can become work. Requiring practice, training, a bit of suffering, physical pain, sweat, planning, and lots of effort. Still, something makes me persist. I’ve always been like this. An instigator.
Swimming and hiking! I also enjoy walking my dog and being outside. Have a lovely summer solstice! 🌻🙌
Happy Summer Solstice 🌞🌻
”Have a lovely summer solstice! ”
You too,
dear Antoinette. ♥
Antoinette, I go swimming everyday at LA Fitness.
I love swimming! Good you go every day ! Wow ! How far do you swim ?
Antoinette, I swim about 30 laps.
This part of life is so missing in my life. I am happy for the nudge to reintroduce it. Thank you for your posts.
I find playfulness with my dog, Frida- she’s a high energy border collie/mini aussie mix and she keeps me on my toes and moving. When I first adopted her, she was anxious and difficult to handle. I was lucky to find an absolutely brilliant dog trainer who helped me and Frida learn to work with each other and now we go everywhere together. Playing with Frida takes me out of myself. I put on upbeat music while we wrestle with her toys and chase each other around the house (right now, it’s too hot in SC to play outside). Our group training classes are always an adventure- the trainer often pulling out new and interesting ways to teach our furry friends to be obedient and calm companions. It’s lovely to be around animal lovers who love their dog and in many cases, have adopted the shelter pet no one else would take because of their behavior. Watching these dogs evolve from anxious, reactive creatures into loyal and trusting companions is a joy.
Good for you for spending so much time with Frida and the trainer! As the owner of one of those previously unwanted, anxious, hyper shelter dogs myself, your story inspires me.
Being out on the sailboat, bike riding ,walking/hiking, cross country skiing and travel to new areas.
Was on the sailboat for 3 nights and now small craft warnings and high winds so back on land. Today is a bike ride.
Playfulness in taking Brady our family dog on adventures. My son took him yesterday for an adventure and it was funny to see
him all tuckered out last night.
Oh, sailing is fun. Hope you got lots of water time this summer.
I find these things when I’m out with our dogs. Finding a new park is fun. They get new smells, and I get to see different things. There’s a great park not too far away that is surrounded by woods with paths that wind thru them. It feels like being in the mountains, well maybe more like the foothills, but it’s a nice place to go for a shaded walk that’s not as busy as some of the parks closer to Uptown… although I love those, too! I also find playfulness without the dogs with my yoga practice, dancing, and going out with my husband. Although I must say, if we start dancing in front of the dogs, they jump up and join in! Especially our big dog, Ruger. He loves a good dance party!
Happy Friday!
Nothing like a dancing dog SunnyPatti!
It’s so funny how much Ruger loves it! You can just start to sway a bit, and his head will perk up. If you really start moving, he’ll jump up, grab a toy, and it’s on! The fact that he’s also about 100lbs makes it that much more fun 🙂
I find playfulness and adventure in my family collaborative Vietnamese poetry writing.