On Play

One of my fabulous clients sent me this Improv Everywhere video, which made me laugh and wonder if I was going to see a similar event in the Bloor Street Station in the near future. It also got me thinking about play.

As a kid, play was mandatory. “Go play outside,” my parents would say, regardless any season. So on with the sandals or snowsuit and off went the television or away went the book. Hours and hours passed making forts, building castles, exploring and learning and dreaming or, sometimes, causing a bit of trouble.

This video made me realize how much I had been hungering for play. My old soul was tired of creaking  and complaining and taking life so seriously. As a result, my activities the past few weeks have unconsciously gravitated towards play:

Writing stories in my bathing suit, like I did when I was a teenager on summer vacation.
Composing emails over a cup of coffee on the patio in the wee morning hours.
Blocking off time to explore with my niece.
Spending a weekend at the cottage off the grid with my siblings.
Making decadent tomato chilli jam with my Nanny.

How delicious it is! And you know what? My other, very serious, important work has not been cast aside, but attended to with a lot more space and joy as well.

In the “high five” video there are at least three types of “players”: the creators (Rob and his friends), the “participants” (high five-ees), and “observers” (those craning their necks from the further escalator). I don’t know about you, but I want to be all three at different times: seeing others at play, being a part of someone else’s play, and creating my own playtime for myself and others!

Are you spending enough time playing in your game of Life? How can you find opportunities to play? Will you create your own opportunity, sit back and enjoy others at play, or jump into someone’s event?