We are Never More Fully Alive-Daily Meditation-3.24.23
Today’s quotation:
We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.-Charles Schaefer
Today’s Meditation:
I hope that I never stop playing. I enjoy it immensely, and I get a lot out of it–a lot of learning, relaxation, perspectives, and simply a distraction from the other things in my life that tend to be more stressful. I like playing with kids who aren’t worried about all the things adults worry about; I like playing with adults who also recognize the importance of play. I like playing on my own, just enjoying my time and my ability to spend it doing something fun.
Sometimes it’s kind of tempting to overthink about play. The best part of the play is its spontaneity, the feeling that we’re just doing something fun just for the sake of doing it. Most of our sports have become too intense and too competitive for them to be tons of fun anymore–we still say that we “play” football or basketball or baseball, but unless we’re playing with someone else who’s just out there to have fun, the fun can very quickly go out of these games.
Do you play enough? Do you do things that are fun simply for the joy of doing so? Do you allow the fun to be fun without thinking about it too much or allowing it to become too competitive? Many of us watch our kids play but don’t play with them. Or we watch our dog play but don’t play with it. Play is something that can take all of your focus and concentration and allow you to spend some time completely immersed in an activity that can make you feel relieved, exhilarated, and thoroughly rested mentally.
Play is so important to us that I very often wonder why so many of us do it so rarely. Why might that be?
Questions to consider:
What are your favorite kinds of play? How often do you play?
How might we go about giving ourselves a chance to play more?
Why do so many of us give up playing as we grow older?
For further thought:
The absolute joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real living of life with the feeling of freedom and self-expression. Play is the business of childhood, and its continuation in later years is the prolongation of youth.-Walter Rauschenbusch
