Occasionally and only a few days ago, no one was around so I sat on a swing and had a good, long, high swinging time. And I often play hide and seek with my dog. He loves to try and find me. Playing like this makes me feel light and free. Laughing unlocks something in me that bubbles out with the laugh when I play.
We went to 2 amusement parks on my last trip to Florida. My son paid for us all to go to an Illusion museum. It was fun and playful. Beside that this winter my friend and I played board games and cards one snowy winter week-end day.
I’m not a rollicking, free play kind of person, though I wish I were. Oldest of 7 kids I took myself very seriously from jump. But I did lots of solitary meandering and loved every minute of it. When my boyfriend was alive we’d get in the car and just follow our nose – jaunts to no place in particular, silence, talking, “Look at THAT!” Those were my favorite times. Exploring. That’s my definition of play.
Indeed,
dear Mary,
Sophie is a cat . . .
a sort of mix of tiger and tortie
with white feet,
small in stature,
big in heart.
When I visited her at the shelter years ago,
I opened the door to her crate
and she leapt out at me
and clung to my shoulder,
nose in my ear..
Now,
18 years later,
she is in the twilight of her life with me,
but still surprisingly agile
when she wants to be.
She sleeps in my arms almost every night.
That is Sophie
in a nutshell . . .
one of the loves of my life.
Thank you for asking. 🙂
Her love
brings tears to my eyes too,
dear Mary. ♥
1
Ose
4 months ago
Good question! Tonight i will play with a recipe for a vegan cake to create something delicious for our group meeting this weekend. Looking forward to possibly create something tasty and enjoyable for all to have fun and joy. Greetings and blessings to all. ✨
So easy to answer the morning after an improv class! I already mentioned that my instructor is forming a troupe and invited me to join. Tonight we’ll have a planning meeting. In two weeks we have a recruitment rehearsal to invite others to try out.
Improv gives me a space in which to be goofy, to inhabit other personas, to romp around physically, to try on accents and fail miserably (last night my Southern good ol’ boy veered all over the place), to give someone else the gift of something they can work with to ramp it up even more, insights into ways I’ve boxed myself into certain aspects of my personality for work purposes and how I might bring more of myself to the place where I spend so much time (without necessarily trying out bad accents that would sound as if I’m mocking people).
It has also given me the gift of friends made the same way I made friends in my childhood: By playing together! Three of us went out after class last night, sat and swapped life stories of how we ended up in Olympia. Adults need playgrounds–places in which to encounter people repeatedly until they became familiar and ultimately can become friends.
ya know…. I was thinking this morning of Loc Tran and his piano and that it would be wonderful if I finally “got around” to taking lessons myself, and wouldn’t it be special if Loc Tran were a part of that progression…..
I am wondering now if Barb C is going to nudge me into that improv world! Pipe dreams, probably, but a pleasant alternative to harsher thoughts. Play matters. Interesting that we use the term “play” for music and instruments as well as light hearted fun and responses. I think it is in reference to skipping over too much verbiage and moving right into the realm of expression and experiencing beyond thoughts and words. Play!! I love it so.
My classes are taught through my local parks and rec department. My instructor trained with a Comedy Sportz troupe. Our work is all family-friendly. She creates such an inviting and supportive space, which she describes as the way she’d like to be taught. I know some students in our class went to other places, didn’t like it as well, then came to her, so it can be different experiences.
I played today while walking my dog. I sang out loud and felt the sun shining on my face and watched the clouds floating by. It was a carefree moment and to me that is play.
Last night, I had the biggest laughing attack that I’ve had in years. It wasn’t quite play, but it was similar. It gave me a big release, and opened up a sense of possibility. I was laughing at my own joke, a word play I was doing in response to a small instance of grumpiness on the part of my husband. Fortunately, my husband was gracious enough to find delight in my laughter after perhaps a moment of increased grumpiness.
I realized upon further reflection that while in this case I was laughing at my own joke, I also feel a sense of play when I am slowed down and present enough to notice and be delighted in others’ impromptu jokes and humor (as long as it is not humor that demeans others)
Today’s question hits the bullseye for me. I have been extremely tense (wound up) for about a week about a health issue that is not knew but very challenging at this time and it has the bully in my head doing its best to keep me in a turmoil. The question reminded me of a phrase I heard at a retreat many years ago: “God wants us to play.” I immediately went to my journal files and found two entries that reference that phrase. I share them here for all who have time to read them.
1. “The notion that God wants us to play” July 22, 08
I attended a conference many years ago and one of the sessions was about God wanting to play. That has become a reality to me. This word “God,” which is so loaded that many reject it, is merely a term for togetherness. Trillions of cells have agreed to cooperate, to play, to form our bodies. How awesome is that?
Jill Bolte Taylor in her book, My Stroke of Insight (pp68-69), speaks of what happened to her awareness when the left hemisphere of her brain was shut down by a stroke. “I shifted from the “doing-conscious” with my left brain to the “being-consciousness” of my right brain…My entire self concept shifted as I no longer perceived myself as a single, a solid, an entity with boundaries that separated me from the entities around me. I understood at the most elemental level, I was fluid…My left hemisphere had been trained to perceive myself as a solid, separate from others. Now, released from that restrictive circuitry, my right hemisphere relished in its attachment to the eternal flow. I was no longer isolated and alone. My soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee in a boundless sea.”
“Doing” consciousness or “being” consciousness remind me of what I have said for years: Am I a human doing or a human being? Eckhart Tolle, in his book, A New Earth says “Life is the dancer. We are the dance.”
Is frolicking doing or being? I expect it is both but more than anything it is choosing to let your self play. It’s what Joseph Campbell coined “following your bliss.” It’s what the poet Robert Lax termed, “becoming the person you were meant to be.”
The Garden of Eden myth speaks of paradise…says that God created form, the perception of a separate self, and tell us that what he created was good. Hinduism tells this story in the myth of their creator God, Brahman. The Hindu story says that Brahman was lonely and wanted a playmate so he created Maya who the Hindus label as the Goddess of Illusion.
2. Morning Meds Sep 15 2016 Play Dough
“The irony is that what we most want to avoid in our lives is crucial to awakening bodhichitta [loving-kindness]. These juicy emotional spots are where a warrior gains wisdom and compassion. Of course, we’ll want to get out of those spots far more often than we’ll want to stay. That’s why self-compassion and courage are vital. Staying with pain without loving-kindness is just warfare.” Pema Chodron
When I read Pema’s quote last night, I was definitely experiencing warfare. I had very little self-compassion or courage. I had been engaged in a pity-party all day and my pity-parties are always filled with a lack of compassion for my body. I’m usually angry with it and its inability to perform as I would like.
My massage therapist had made the comment yesterday as she lovingly worked to ease my knotted muscles that when we are in fight and flight, the parasympathetic nervous system, which can offer our body relief, does not have a chance. Our nervous system is in sympathetic mode and it is preparing the body to fight or flee. Life then becomes a battle. We are trying to run away from something or attempting to get to something, someplace we think we will feel safe. The operative word being: “think.”
This morning as I was writing by hand in my journal, I thought about Pema’s quote and I took off my boxing gloves. I reminded myself that fight and flight is seldom about what is happening now unless you are located where real bombs are falling or some wild creature is chasing you.
I thought: While I’m tide up in knots, God wants to play. Do you remember a product called “play dough?” It was a lump of some chemically created clay that could be fashioned into all kinds of shapes. I decided that my mantra for today was I am “play dough” and God wants to play. Perhaps, life is really about being “play dough’ and the wisdom of God’s Isness can create a much more interesting and life-giving day than I can with my finite mind. Let the fun begin!
I can relate to all of that, Carol.
And thank God for Pema and Ekhart.
We spend so much of our energy, resisting.
I think I have been living my life with cortisol and adrenaline running through my body most of the time. When it finally caught up with me I was a mess, my body wouldn’t stop shaking. I had a choice. So glad I decided to surrender. 🙏
I hope your medical issues can be ameliorated.
Carol, My friend from McNally Smith College of Music, Zach Ward, once told me that children are closer to god. Ngoc and I were talking about it last night. I find that to be true. Their desires are simple. Their lives are basically just: sleep, eat, play, and school.
I love the image of letting oneself be playdough in God’s hands, Carol! Playfully allowing myself to be playdough and letting the great “Togetherness” work out the knots in my psyche and body.
Play. Well last night I played a bit in portrait drawing class.
I drew loosely and lightly and found the lines in the process.
I shaded my drawing when the room darkened after sunset.
I looked through mostly closed eyes to see the darkest shadows.
I shaded with emotion and intensity.
Other than that I don’t play too much.
Dancing is play to me, especially if I love the music.
Today I will dance.
I’m a pretty playful person. Really just a kid at heart. I played a little bocce ball on Sunday and we play corn hole (bean bag toss game) regularly.
I love ping pong, but haven’t played in a while.
I try to be playful at work and lighten up the day a bit. I like to ride bikes and consider that a form of play. Even hiking, I would consider a form of play. I like to stop a lot and check stuff out, take some photos. Ah yes, and throwing the Frisbee around. I haven’t done that for a while. That’s a great reminder to get back to that.
My husband and I went and played pickleball the other day for the 1st time in a few months. It was so much fun! We can both be pretty competitive, but since we were a bit rusty, it was more of us just getting used to playing again with lots of laughter. The other 3 courts were full, too, and all that moving energy felt really good. I’d say it awakened my playful spirit a little more, and I look forward to getting on the courts again soon!
My impassioned dog and I played tetherball in the back yard yesterday. Picture 65 pounds of fur and teeth flying through the air. It’s giggles with a jolt of nerves. The dog can’t go a day without playing multiple times, and I need to drop what I’m doing sometimes. When I play, I forget other things around me, focusing only (in this case) on the mouth and paws flying towards the ball. I delight in the rush of the moment.
Animals are so much fun to play with. My cats go nuts for toys that fly through the air, each with their own individual method of capturing prey. My Siamese jumps higher into the air than anyone would guess that she could. My orange “good boy” captures the toy and hold it so firmly and tightly in his jaws that we have to stop and wait, then start up again. They make me laugh so much.
“Mouth and paws flying through the air,”
“65 pounds of fur and teeth flying through the air.”
This image makes me smile, and I can feel the excitement and laughter as you play.
This sounds like so much fun, Drea!
Such joy!
Dogs are so much fun! Our big dog loves interactive play with us and insists on it, too. It’s so cute when he goes to their toy box and picks something out, bringing it over with that look on his face that says, “come on, I’m ready!”
This weekend, I played a lot with my BFF—see, we still call each other that, and we’ll be 50 this year. We did ecstatic dance, meditated, hiked, and had bubble tea. It was a girlfriend’s weekend to remember. She staycationed at my house and we laughed and laughed. I try to play regularly–primarily through dance. I know it’s essential to laugh and let go. I also bring a playful attitude to my classes–yoga and Qi Gong can be stoic and we love to joke without losing the reverence for these traditions. I wish you all have a good belly laugh today.
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Occasionally and only a few days ago, no one was around so I sat on a swing and had a good, long, high swinging time. And I often play hide and seek with my dog. He loves to try and find me. Playing like this makes me feel light and free. Laughing unlocks something in me that bubbles out with the laugh when I play.
I love going on a swing, I need to that soon!
We went to 2 amusement parks on my last trip to Florida. My son paid for us all to go to an Illusion museum. It was fun and playful. Beside that this winter my friend and I played board games and cards one snowy winter week-end day.
I’m not a rollicking, free play kind of person, though I wish I were. Oldest of 7 kids I took myself very seriously from jump. But I did lots of solitary meandering and loved every minute of it. When my boyfriend was alive we’d get in the car and just follow our nose – jaunts to no place in particular, silence, talking, “Look at THAT!” Those were my favorite times. Exploring. That’s my definition of play.
. . . this morning,
making the bed with Sophie.
Playing with her
awakens Joy in my life. ♥
Sophie is a cat, right?
I have one cat who goes nuts when I make the bed. 😂😸
Please say more about Sophie, Sparrow.
Indeed,
dear Mary,
Sophie is a cat . . .
a sort of mix of tiger and tortie
with white feet,
small in stature,
big in heart.
When I visited her at the shelter years ago,
I opened the door to her crate
and she leapt out at me
and clung to my shoulder,
nose in my ear..
Now,
18 years later,
she is in the twilight of her life with me,
but still surprisingly agile
when she wants to be.
She sleeps in my arms almost every night.
That is Sophie
in a nutshell . . .
one of the loves of my life.
Thank you for asking. 🙂
awwww! She was meant for you and you for her.
This is so true,
dear Michele . . .
thank you for seeing this. ♥
This brought tears to my eyes.
Thank you dear Sparrow
Her love
brings tears to my eyes too,
dear Mary. ♥
Good question! Tonight i will play with a recipe for a vegan cake to create something delicious for our group meeting this weekend. Looking forward to possibly create something tasty and enjoyable for all to have fun and joy. Greetings and blessings to all. ✨
OSE, I transitioned to a vegan diet a year and a half ago, and I found it helpful to embrace the playfulness of learning a new way of cooking.
That sounds wonderful, Ose
So easy to answer the morning after an improv class! I already mentioned that my instructor is forming a troupe and invited me to join. Tonight we’ll have a planning meeting. In two weeks we have a recruitment rehearsal to invite others to try out.
Improv gives me a space in which to be goofy, to inhabit other personas, to romp around physically, to try on accents and fail miserably (last night my Southern good ol’ boy veered all over the place), to give someone else the gift of something they can work with to ramp it up even more, insights into ways I’ve boxed myself into certain aspects of my personality for work purposes and how I might bring more of myself to the place where I spend so much time (without necessarily trying out bad accents that would sound as if I’m mocking people).
It has also given me the gift of friends made the same way I made friends in my childhood: By playing together! Three of us went out after class last night, sat and swapped life stories of how we ended up in Olympia. Adults need playgrounds–places in which to encounter people repeatedly until they became familiar and ultimately can become friends.
Yes indeed Barb C– back when I was taking an Improv class, that was some of the best play I have experienced as an adult!
Sounds sooo fun! Glad you are building a community with whom to play!
ya know…. I was thinking this morning of Loc Tran and his piano and that it would be wonderful if I finally “got around” to taking lessons myself, and wouldn’t it be special if Loc Tran were a part of that progression…..
I am wondering now if Barb C is going to nudge me into that improv world! Pipe dreams, probably, but a pleasant alternative to harsher thoughts. Play matters. Interesting that we use the term “play” for music and instruments as well as light hearted fun and responses. I think it is in reference to skipping over too much verbiage and moving right into the realm of expression and experiencing beyond thoughts and words. Play!! I love it so.
My classes are taught through my local parks and rec department. My instructor trained with a Comedy Sportz troupe. Our work is all family-friendly. She creates such an inviting and supportive space, which she describes as the way she’d like to be taught. I know some students in our class went to other places, didn’t like it as well, then came to her, so it can be different experiences.
Good for you! I love improv…
I played today while walking my dog. I sang out loud and felt the sun shining on my face and watched the clouds floating by. It was a carefree moment and to me that is play.
That sounds delightful, Antoinette!
Last night, I had the biggest laughing attack that I’ve had in years. It wasn’t quite play, but it was similar. It gave me a big release, and opened up a sense of possibility. I was laughing at my own joke, a word play I was doing in response to a small instance of grumpiness on the part of my husband. Fortunately, my husband was gracious enough to find delight in my laughter after perhaps a moment of increased grumpiness.
I realized upon further reflection that while in this case I was laughing at my own joke, I also feel a sense of play when I am slowed down and present enough to notice and be delighted in others’ impromptu jokes and humor (as long as it is not humor that demeans others)
There is nothing like a belly laugh, especially when shared with another,
to release tension and to feel great.
Today’s question hits the bullseye for me. I have been extremely tense (wound up) for about a week about a health issue that is not knew but very challenging at this time and it has the bully in my head doing its best to keep me in a turmoil. The question reminded me of a phrase I heard at a retreat many years ago: “God wants us to play.” I immediately went to my journal files and found two entries that reference that phrase. I share them here for all who have time to read them.
1. “The notion that God wants us to play” July 22, 08
I attended a conference many years ago and one of the sessions was about God wanting to play. That has become a reality to me. This word “God,” which is so loaded that many reject it, is merely a term for togetherness. Trillions of cells have agreed to cooperate, to play, to form our bodies. How awesome is that?
Jill Bolte Taylor in her book, My Stroke of Insight (pp68-69), speaks of what happened to her awareness when the left hemisphere of her brain was shut down by a stroke. “I shifted from the “doing-conscious” with my left brain to the “being-consciousness” of my right brain…My entire self concept shifted as I no longer perceived myself as a single, a solid, an entity with boundaries that separated me from the entities around me. I understood at the most elemental level, I was fluid…My left hemisphere had been trained to perceive myself as a solid, separate from others. Now, released from that restrictive circuitry, my right hemisphere relished in its attachment to the eternal flow. I was no longer isolated and alone. My soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee in a boundless sea.”
“Doing” consciousness or “being” consciousness remind me of what I have said for years: Am I a human doing or a human being? Eckhart Tolle, in his book, A New Earth says “Life is the dancer. We are the dance.”
Is frolicking doing or being? I expect it is both but more than anything it is choosing to let your self play. It’s what Joseph Campbell coined “following your bliss.” It’s what the poet Robert Lax termed, “becoming the person you were meant to be.”
The Garden of Eden myth speaks of paradise…says that God created form, the perception of a separate self, and tell us that what he created was good. Hinduism tells this story in the myth of their creator God, Brahman. The Hindu story says that Brahman was lonely and wanted a playmate so he created Maya who the Hindus label as the Goddess of Illusion.
2. Morning Meds Sep 15 2016 Play Dough
“The irony is that what we most want to avoid in our lives is crucial to awakening bodhichitta [loving-kindness]. These juicy emotional spots are where a warrior gains wisdom and compassion. Of course, we’ll want to get out of those spots far more often than we’ll want to stay. That’s why self-compassion and courage are vital. Staying with pain without loving-kindness is just warfare.” Pema Chodron
When I read Pema’s quote last night, I was definitely experiencing warfare. I had very little self-compassion or courage. I had been engaged in a pity-party all day and my pity-parties are always filled with a lack of compassion for my body. I’m usually angry with it and its inability to perform as I would like.
My massage therapist had made the comment yesterday as she lovingly worked to ease my knotted muscles that when we are in fight and flight, the parasympathetic nervous system, which can offer our body relief, does not have a chance. Our nervous system is in sympathetic mode and it is preparing the body to fight or flee. Life then becomes a battle. We are trying to run away from something or attempting to get to something, someplace we think we will feel safe. The operative word being: “think.”
This morning as I was writing by hand in my journal, I thought about Pema’s quote and I took off my boxing gloves. I reminded myself that fight and flight is seldom about what is happening now unless you are located where real bombs are falling or some wild creature is chasing you.
I thought: While I’m tide up in knots, God wants to play. Do you remember a product called “play dough?” It was a lump of some chemically created clay that could be fashioned into all kinds of shapes. I decided that my mantra for today was I am “play dough” and God wants to play. Perhaps, life is really about being “play dough’ and the wisdom of God’s Isness can create a much more interesting and life-giving day than I can with my finite mind. Let the fun begin!
I can relate to all of that, Carol.
And thank God for Pema and Ekhart.
We spend so much of our energy, resisting.
I think I have been living my life with cortisol and adrenaline running through my body most of the time. When it finally caught up with me I was a mess, my body wouldn’t stop shaking. I had a choice. So glad I decided to surrender. 🙏
I hope your medical issues can be ameliorated.
Thank you, Charlie
I saw Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk
some years ago,
dear Carol,
and was changed forever
by her words.
She an amazing woman
with amazing insight. ♥
Here’s a link to her talk . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU
That was very cool. Thank you, Sparrow. 🙏
I’m happy that you enjoyed it,
dear Charlie . . .
I love the down to earth telling
of how it felt to her . . .
sounding like a golden retriever. 🙂
Carol, My friend from McNally Smith College of Music, Zach Ward, once told me that children are closer to god. Ngoc and I were talking about it last night. I find that to be true. Their desires are simple. Their lives are basically just: sleep, eat, play, and school.
I love the image of letting oneself be playdough in God’s hands, Carol! Playfully allowing myself to be playdough and letting the great “Togetherness” work out the knots in my psyche and body.
Play. Well last night I played a bit in portrait drawing class.
I drew loosely and lightly and found the lines in the process.
I shaded my drawing when the room darkened after sunset.
I looked through mostly closed eyes to see the darkest shadows.
I shaded with emotion and intensity.
Other than that I don’t play too much.
Dancing is play to me, especially if I love the music.
Today I will dance.
With some of my favorite CD’s playing, I dance around the kitchen a lot. Nothing like dish water suds flying through the air!
I love that picture!🫧🫧
I’m a pretty playful person. Really just a kid at heart. I played a little bocce ball on Sunday and we play corn hole (bean bag toss game) regularly.
I love ping pong, but haven’t played in a while.
I try to be playful at work and lighten up the day a bit. I like to ride bikes and consider that a form of play. Even hiking, I would consider a form of play. I like to stop a lot and check stuff out, take some photos. Ah yes, and throwing the Frisbee around. I haven’t done that for a while. That’s a great reminder to get back to that.
My husband and I went and played pickleball the other day for the 1st time in a few months. It was so much fun! We can both be pretty competitive, but since we were a bit rusty, it was more of us just getting used to playing again with lots of laughter. The other 3 courts were full, too, and all that moving energy felt really good. I’d say it awakened my playful spirit a little more, and I look forward to getting on the courts again soon!
My impassioned dog and I played tetherball in the back yard yesterday. Picture 65 pounds of fur and teeth flying through the air. It’s giggles with a jolt of nerves. The dog can’t go a day without playing multiple times, and I need to drop what I’m doing sometimes. When I play, I forget other things around me, focusing only (in this case) on the mouth and paws flying towards the ball. I delight in the rush of the moment.
Animals are so much fun to play with. My cats go nuts for toys that fly through the air, each with their own individual method of capturing prey. My Siamese jumps higher into the air than anyone would guess that she could. My orange “good boy” captures the toy and hold it so firmly and tightly in his jaws that we have to stop and wait, then start up again. They make me laugh so much.
“Mouth and paws flying through the air,”
“65 pounds of fur and teeth flying through the air.”
This image makes me smile, and I can feel the excitement and laughter as you play.
This sounds like so much fun, Drea!
Such joy!
Mary – I grew up with Siamese cats. In fact, I am ready to get a Siamese kitten for a playmate for my cat I have now.
That is so exciting, Michelle!
Please tell us when you get her!
Have fun,
dear Michele . . .
from my experience
Siamese cats are talkers. 🙂
Yes!
Dogs are so much fun! Our big dog loves interactive play with us and insists on it, too. It’s so cute when he goes to their toy box and picks something out, bringing it over with that look on his face that says, “come on, I’m ready!”
This weekend, I played a lot with my BFF—see, we still call each other that, and we’ll be 50 this year. We did ecstatic dance, meditated, hiked, and had bubble tea. It was a girlfriend’s weekend to remember. She staycationed at my house and we laughed and laughed. I try to play regularly–primarily through dance. I know it’s essential to laugh and let go. I also bring a playful attitude to my classes–yoga and Qi Gong can be stoic and we love to joke without losing the reverence for these traditions. I wish you all have a good belly laugh today.
I am going to keep my mind and eyes open to that belly laugh, Avril!
Thanks Mary
That sounds like a really fun weekend, Avril.
It was amazing
I play all the time. It awakens the inner child in me.
Amen Loc