Ready for Fun?

Who’s ready for a little fun?

I know we’re not all fed from the same trough, but my “happy tank” sure gets filled spending time in the great outdoors. Yeah, the heat and lately, the humidity, makes me work a little harder for it, but it’s sooooooooo worth it.

There’s a new trail in town, and we’re going to hit it – soon.

Between hiking up Helen Hunt Falls and roaming the trails at Palmer Park with my husband, and traipsing around the Fountain Creek Nature Preserve with our grandchildren, my happy meter has been registering quite high lately. Does that make me immune from the blues? No. But, it sure goes a long way in self-care!

Sometimes I don’t even let it register that what I’m leaving the house to do will require energy, which, quite frankly, I don’t always feel like I have. I get ready anticipating the joy that will come of it. I suppose I could face all forms of exercise this way; perhaps that would help me to “just do it….”

There’s just something about the word “exercise” that doesn’t register in my brain as fun. But, how do I change a lifetime of thinking this way?

One thought at a time!

Sometimes I think my children think that babysitting their children should be a task for me, something that should drain me. I can’t seem to convey to them just how life-giving their children are to me; how they energize me and re-teach me the pleasures that come from simple things. How did I forget? Well, I don’t think I actually forgot. I think I just don’t always remember to remember, if that makes any sense.

Go for a walk with a child – it can become an adventure if you allow it to. Look at what they’re seeing, from their perspective. Get on your knees if you have to! There’s so much excitement there for the taking, so much pleasure for the enjoyment. How did becoming an adult rob us of some of the most incredible yet incredibly simple joys of life?

Letting go seems to be a theme in my life, lately, (actually, for several years now.) Sometimes it’s much easier than I’d have ever thought it could be. Other times – I don’t even realize what I’m hanging on to so tightly.

A few years ago, a friend was going through a particularly hard time. Watching her grieve drew my attention to some of the differences between how children look at life, and how we adults try to control it.

“And he said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 17:3 (NIV)

I’ll leave you with a poem that came to me through watching her wrestle with God’s will and her own. It resounds loudly in me, from time to time.

When you were just a little girl

The world was simple and small.

There wasn’t much to be anxious about

Or cause you to worry at all.

Faith came so easily, trust was just there,

We knew that we weren’t in control.

What is it that’s changed between

childhood and now?

We’ve let doubt take it’s toll on our soul.

What’s the secret to that childlike faith?

How did we sleep at night?

There must be a way to get it all back,

A way to make everything right.

Did we know more when we were a child?

Have we forgotten the basics of living?

A good place to start as we take back our lives,

Would be laughing and playing and giving. 

Let’s go back to being God’s own little girls

And give back control of our days.

We’ll promise to worry when God says we can,

And feel fear when He says it’s okay.

We’ll rest when He tells us it’s time to relax.

We won’t let adult things cause worry.

   We’ll laugh for no reason and cry when we want

And deadlines won’t make us hurry.

We’ll pray every morning, we’ll pray every night

And refuse to doubt angels are real. 

We’ll smile at our trials and scoff at our pain,

Feeling each feeling we feel.

~ Helen Williams! c 2006