THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Do you bring the spirit of laughter into the room

AND THE LITTLE BOY SAID

We all go through rough times in life. It is easy to want to blame others for our situation, but it is not about others, but ourselves. I keep learning and relearning that when I blame others, it just keeps the sadness and negativity in control of my life. The longer I hold on to my negativity and sadness, the more of my joy and wealth I give away. Sometimes we just need someone to help us refocus.

Decades ago, I worked in a summer camp and had a little boy named Mikey. He was learning how to be away from his mom for the first time in his life. He would come in crying and I began playing this game with him to redirect his energy. I would say can you make a monster face and he would. How about a sad face and he would and before you knew it he was okay and then we could go play with the other kids.

One day we were playing the water when I realized I had lost a piece of jewelry that I never took off. It brought tears to my face and no matter how hard I tried I could not stop the tears from rolling down my face, and then this little boy gave me a gift I will never forget. I tried to capture this in a poem about us and this experience.

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TIME FOR A MICRO LAUGH BREAK

Recently someone asked me why I had chosen to spend an entire month focusing on the spiritual practice of play. Why is it that play is not seen as spiritual? Play is powerful in that it enhances our free spiritedness. It also counter balances predictability and seriousness. One can be spiritual and free spirited at the same time. There are times to be serious, but they are times to be playful and kick back and enjoy life. Laughter and play can actually help people with their spiritual journeys and their ability to learn. Several of the spiritual teachers who I admire have lured me in with their humor.

For example, the Dalai Lama was once asked what he wanted for his birthday. He said nothing. On his birthday, his friends gave him this ornately decorated box. He opened it and smiled and said thank you. You gave me exactly what I wanted. The box was empty. They had given him nothing. That story, was both serious and humorous. It made me laugh and think all at the same time.

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MAKE ME LAUGH

Dear God,

You have a sense of humor. Here I am in the most stressful month of my life and the spiritual practice you have led me to focus on is play. Here I am in a space when there are more things on my to do list, then there appears to be time for the things I want to do list. Final projects are coming in from my students, I am doing a record number of Pampered chef parties in a two week period for myself, editing a document for a client, planning my upcoming winter course, meeting with clients, facilitating groups, and making time for day to day activities like sleeping, eating, showering, time with Zoe and time with the cats.  I would like to say I am busy, however, I am working at releasing that word from my vocabulary.

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