Children just know how to have fun, don’t they? And it really doesn’t take much for them to burst into play. Children also have a knack for making us laugh…at them and at ourselves! The challenge, I am finding for myself, is to intentionally put away my “scheduled” activities to actually learn – as an adult – how to play. Now before you flip off of this page altogether, let me introduce you to a variety of ways to play, not all of them involving toys, and not all of them involving children!

Baking is a form of play. Wait – I hear you arguing with me. But think about it for a minute…you get to put a lot of different things into a bowl, dip in your hands and squish that created substance into a ball. Then you get to throw it onto the countertop, beat it with your fist, and smooth it into shape. And that’s just the beginning of the fun!

Gardening is a form of play as well. Remember when you were a child how you loved to sit in the mud after a rain and dig deep into the earth? Perhaps you found a wiggly worm to play with, or maybe you formed the mud into a pie and pretended to eat it. Maybe you imagined you were driving a bulldozer over a mountain of dirt, creating a road on which others would one day drive. All of those forms of play may have led you directly to the place where you feel most like a child – happy and carefree within the garden setting of your dreams.

Maybe there is nothing better in your world than to grab a camera and take off at sunset to photograph the blaze in the sky. Playtime for you may be navigating life behind the lens of your Iphone, or the antique camera you just purchased last summer. It also might mean that you grab paper and pen and head to your favorite spot in the woods to draw in the last moments of the day before the sun sizzles into the valley below. You’re an artist (or a wanna be) and playtime to you looks like discovering beauty in the world outside your home.

Playtime….could be as simple as holding that new grandbaby and getting lost in the rhythm of love for a while. Embrace those moments. They have become gifts, and the gifts long to be opened.

Go ahead…grab your childhood bicycle and take a spin. Playtime to you is exercise….but nothing speaks joy like the wind in your face as you peddle along the sidewalk waving to neighbors as you pass by.

I hope that when you come to this page, you will find refreshment for your soul as you discover new – or rediscover old – ways to embrace play. No matter your age or physical abilities, there is something for you here. I can’t wait to meet you here again soon as we cultivate intentional play time together.

~Giggles…and Blessings,

Connie