Play is the exultation of the possible.

Martin Buber

Welcome to Day Five of Reclaim Play

Whether as activity or mindset, play offers a portal to wonder, awe, and the transcendent. If you’ve ever been so engrossed in play that you lost track of time, you’ve experienced one of play’s liberating capacities. If you’ve let out an impromptu whoop of delight when jumping into a lake or riding a sled down a hill, you’ve known the exuberance that play unleashes. If you’ve found yourself feeling more awake and connected to all of life after a night of dancing or singing or celebrating with others, you’ve tapped into a version of what the sociologist Émile Durkheim called “collective effervescence” — an experience that researcher Dacher Keltner says, in turn, can result in awe. 

By whatever name — joy, awe, wonder, effervescence, whoop! — there’s a state of embodied and spiritual aliveness that is most available to us when we say a wholehearted yes to play. Through play, we not only have some fun, connect with others, and find new ways of approaching daily life, we get just a bit closer to mystery and to all that we cannot fully know. Play is, as Br. David Steindl-Rast writes, a true celebration of life — an essential key, in fact, to a meaningful one.

Today’s Practice: Celebrate What You Cherish

To set the stage for today’s practice, take inspiration from this group of women who swim together every morning in the icy waters of the North Atlantic! Their swims began for exercise but evolved into a playful celebration of life — an appreciation of the small things: the weather, the sun, the rainbow, the coffee! As one of them shares: “It’s good to be alive, absolutely.”

Today’s practice invites you to play as a celebration of life — a response to life’s gifts and also a way of opening the door to awe and possibility.

Step One: Identify What You Cherish

Identify something you’re particularly grateful for in your life, something calling for celebration and rejoicing! What is beckoning your great whoop?! Your alleluia?! Your health, your garden, the mountains or ocean, the sky, a beloved? Take a few moments to attune to the things you most value in your life. Consider making a list of 5-10 then choosing one for the next step in the practice. You might also review the first four days of the Pathway for something you want to celebrate and honor.

Step Two: Celebrate This Gift through Play

Come up with a playful way to celebrate this gift in your life, to give thanks for it — ideally something that you can do today. Consider the ways that play can be an expression of what you value and cherish, an honoring of it. In this way play is, paradoxically, a way of taking the gifts of your life seriously. Consider how the women in the short film above are swimming not only for exercise and connection but as a playful expression of the gift of being alive and the ability to move their bodies. They are playfully engaging with the world they love.

Step Three: Reflect & Commit

After you’ve celebrated what you value with your playful engagement, spend some with the questions below. These are big ones! Take your time.

  • Is there any way in which your playful celebration of what matters most to you enhances your appreciation for that particular aspect of your life? 
  • Inspired by the theologian Martin Buber, quoted above, in what ways is your playful rejoicing a kind of “exultation of the possible”? Does it express possibility or awaken you to it? 
  • When you celebrate what you cherish through playful engagement, do you notice any opening of your heart or enlivening of your spirit? 
  • In what ways might play as a form of rejoicing bring you closer to the ineffable, to wonder, to the mysteries of life?

The Pathway is Over, but Play Is Not

Once you’ve taken some time to reflect, look back over each day of the Pathway and make a commitment to reclaim play in your life going forward. Whether it’s engaging in more playful activities, intentionally connecting through play, adopting a more playful way of being, working on releasing the barriers to play, celebrating life’s gifts with play, or a combination of all of these, make a plan for yourself and put a future date on your calendar to assess how it’s going. Approach it all with ease and curiosity. May the playful path forward be a liberating one that enhances meaning and joy in your daily life.

Scroll to the bottom of the page (or click here) to find the Community Conversation space where we invite you to share your reflections about today’s practice or the Pathway overall!

You may also record a video or audio response to our video invitation below.

Deepening Resource

In his essay Rejoice and Play, Joe Primo writes, “The practice of grateful living — in its attunement to the now — is like the next door neighbor knocking on your door and asking you to come out to play. Answer the invitation, and you’ll find it’s a good day to rejoice.”

Rejoice and Play by Joe Primo

Research Highlight

Neuroscientific studies reveal that “when we play, our brains light up, and the neural pathways formed from repeated playful times (whether early or later in life) shape how alive we feel, how well we learn, how cleverly we create/innovate from that point forward” (Nat’l Inst. of Play). Connecting with others through play can open the door to collective effervescence (Keltner. Awe, 2023) which, in turn, can lead to self-transcendence, increased concern for the well-being of others, and an openness to the sacred (Pizarro, et al. Frontiers in Psychology, August 2022).

Photo by Hugo Ruiz


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