Play

Play is a divine gift from a goofy goddess.  It is the thing that engages us and makes us happy.  If it doesn't make us happy we are probably not playing.  

A talented artist said to me. "I sometimes forget the playing." She was expressing how we fall asleep to the fun of now. The Funnymiracle of what we are engaged in. We can't actually enjoy something once it's done because that moment of completion is so brief. Shortly we are off to something else, that we think will make us happy when we are finished with it.

I procrastinate to delay failure. Sometimes I get tired of the anticipation of failure and just go ahead and play with it. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I fail and pull it from the fire. Sometimes it turns out better than I could have thought. In order to be creative we must be playful. In order to be playful we must feel safe. In order to be safe we must we must neutralize the fear of judgement, however briefly. No matter what, play is a joyous release from the burden of fear. A weight that holds me to the past and steals my present.

"You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past," writes teen novelist Jay Asher. "The only way to learn the secret... is to press play."