Play vs. Fun

We played this weekend.  Yep, there I said it. We played.  Not “we had fun this weekend”, but “we played this weekend”.  The difference?  There is no motive for play except well play.  Nothing gets checked off a list when you play except the item that says “play.”  I can have fun doing so many things.  I can have fun cleaning my house if I am in the right mood and have some good tunes playing.  I can have fun at work.  I can have fun packing boxes for our move. AND that is so good to find fun inside the things I need to do.  I love that I can make most things fun and enjoyable.  What I have trouble doing is not doing anything “worthwhile”–that is something on a list that has an end result.  I am “play challenged” no doubt.  I think some of that is from my upbringing.  Some of that thinking is just because of the person that I am-I am a doer.  So for me to say “no work all play” this weekend is pretty monumental.

AND playing was fun too!  We hit some places we have visited before and reminisced.  We ate some great food; splurged on dessert.  We watched kids jumping in a fountain and playing for almost an hour; we just laughed and enjoyed that so much. We roamed in and out of some little shops and bought a couple things for our new house. We found some patio furniture on clearance and bought it! We wondered the city as if we were tourists and took pictures.

At first glance back, I would say we accomplished nothing this weekend since we played so much.  But that would be wrong.  We laughed, breathed, walked, slept, enjoyed the heat and the sunshine (instead of just AC), loved being together, talked alot, took great pictures to remember our weekend by, bonded, reminisced, dreamed and loved.  That my friend is quite alot accomplished in just one weekend of play!

How do you play?

Public admission of PLAYING!

I experienced an earth shattering, universe moving, unlike nothing else EVER this morning.  In my endeavor to shift my paradigm, I am not only trying to shift it, BUTalso not to be ashamed, embarrassed or apologetic about it.  Very much a challenge for me; after all I pride myself in all that I can do, will do, am planning to do, etc.

Two of my focuses came together today.  One, is my desire to connect more–face to face AND honestly.  Two, my desire to play more and do it without remorse.

This morning I had the great honor once again of attending a Ladies Who Launch event in Atlanta.  I say” honor” because these women are fantastic, bright and just beautiful inside and out.  They are movers and shakers and they inspire me every time I go.  BUT I do not go and connect with these ladies enough.  In my “new world” I have committed to do this more often and this morning I did. So kudos to me for making this a priority today and I benefited GREATLY from it.

During the meeting, I surprised myself when I announced to a room full of these movers and shakers and people that I greatly respect that I, have yes, bought a Wii and have been PLAYING with it every day in the last couple of weeks AND loving it! :).  What a shock to me to hear this come out of my mouth!  I was not talking about being overloaded, pulled in 1000 directions, etc., but was talking about playing.  AND you know what?  THEY CLAPPED and CHEERED!  What a great moment for me!  What a realization! No one judges me harshly for playing and for admitting it.  No one came up to me afterwards and said “oh my you aren’t working enough” or “how can you possibly do THAT”.  I am the only one that says that to me and I must stop.  I mean if these intelligent, productive, smart, successful women thought it was ok then maybe, just maybe it is. 🙂

Connecting, play and honest communication.  I am loving the shift.

Wii/We time

Playing more was a BIGGIE when looking at our life.   We also found that there is a difference between having fun and playing.

We love working together.  We love home improvement projects.  We love cooking. We love our businesses.  We have FUN doing all of these things, but is that really playing?  Nope it is not.  Playing to me is doing something just for fun even if no one else understands it and even if it does not result in checking something off of a to do list.  That was something lacking in my life.  Having fun yes; playing no.

So we resolved that together in 2011,we would play more and that play would be together play.  True play, just play and for no reason other than, well….play.

So last night we did something that in 5 1/2 years of marriage we have NEVER done together; especially at home on a weeknight.  No kids were visiting, the dog was sleeping, we had not even eaten dinner yet and we kicked the coffee table out of the way, tossed off our shoes and (drum roll please…) we played Wii.  Yes Wii!  I know many of you have done this for months now and may even be tired of it by now.  BUT we did not even own one until yesterday.

AND it was fantastic.  We laughed and played and munched and played and well let me just say that we will definitely be incorporating Wii into WE.