Remember
to Play
“You
must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give someone else
responsibility for your life.”
Mary
Oliver
Boy, I
miss Mary Oliver. Just knowing she was on the planet breathing the same air
made me happy. At least we have her legacy of wonderful thoughts and poems. Two
things I love about her writing was how she enjoyed the whimsical antics of wild
animals and captured both their humor and their ferociousness. She also encouraged us
to recall the wild in us. “I try to be good but sometimes a person just has
to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be. It’s
impossible not to remember wild and want it back.” So true.
These
days, having a sense of humor may be the essential quality one needs to cope. I
remember gallows humor around the cafeteria table during the years of my former
husband’s pediatric residency. When the days were challenging, when the young
doctors were sleep-deprived and glassy-eyed from burdens too heavy, they made
jokes that sounded cruel and heartless. It was how they coped with the darkness
of hospital walls and sick children. To my outsider’s ears they sounded like ghouls,
looked like the walking dead, but they found their own jokes hilarious.
Play is
not the province of children only. We all need to play. It balances out the
heavy burdens we carry, it lightens the load of losses and sorrows this world
has to offer. What was play for you as a child? When do you feel playful now?
Have you cut yourself off from those things that you loved as a child because
you feel silly doing them now? If so, reconsider your choices. Having regular “play
dates” will make everything feel less burdensome. May even give you a new
perspective on how to cope.
Carl
Jung maintained that all human creativity begins as play. I hope today you
will make time to play. If you act silly while you are at it, that’s even
better.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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