Let the to-do list go and schedule playtime
Posted: Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2011
COURTESY ROSIE MOLINARY
Rosie Molinary
Rosie Molinary is the author of Beautiful You, published in October 2010 by Seal Press, and a regular contributor to Lake Norman Magazine. Find her at www.rosiemolinary.com.
This is going to sound ironic, but I am going to go ahead and say it. I want you to do one thing today. Schedule play.
Schedule play? You say. Um, shouldnt play be spontaneous. Well, yes, it would be fabulous if it was but rarely is it spontaneous, even rarer does it ever happen, and its so darn good for us. In July, a group of friends and I skipped school (well, work and mothering, but I never once skipped school for real so I wanted to say skip school) to go stand up paddle boarding. And, you know what, it was so much fun. I had a long to do list at the time but over the course of paddling around that river, I just didnt think about it. I delighted in my friends, in the sun, in the water, in a new sport, in just feeling life, feeling real, unhurried, uninhibited, undeterred. And it was good. Really good. There hasnt been much play in my life since then. And, recently, a friend who went paddling, too, sent me this article about play so Ive been thinking about it again. Thinking about how hard it is to just let things go and have fun when you are all grown up with kids and wars and economies and bedtimes and, well, life to worry about. But life isnt supposed to be ALL serious. And I am not at my best when I am on the hamster wheel of hyper-productivity. So, play, it is on my mind because I need to be doing it. To that end, Ive booked another day of stand up paddling for mid-September. Whats your play plan?
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