Making Time for Play

I take life too seriously much of the time, my seemingly endless lists and responsibilities take precedence over fun most of the time.  I don't consider this a good trait, but it is who I am.  Last night I decided it was time for some play.  As I was taking out the garbage I noticed that it was a still, mild night and we had lots of snow. 

SNOWMAN TIME

I called to my daughter who was working on her Christmas cards "I am going to build a snowman, want to help?"  She gave me a quizzical look (the one that says "are you for real?"), but her sense of play must have kicked in too and out she came.  

We quickly realized the snow was not quite sticky enough.  But instead of throwing in the towel we altered our plan. We went from snowman to polar bear (at one time the polar bear was looking more like a strange demonic sheep), but eventually we got it looking the way we wanted.  Our "Coca-Cola" bear was done.

For just over an hour I had childlike fun. I forgot about the lists of things to do, what was on my plate at work, forgot about being tired.  Forgot about everything except creating that snow bear. It was fun and I felt 10 years old again (but without the purple (Grimace) snow suit).

I went to bed feeling like I had done something really good for myself.  I must remember to play more.

“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.” – Erik H. Erikson

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw