Are You Having Any Fun?

Well, are you?  And if not, why not?  Too busy?  Too overwhelmed?  Does having fun sound like a waste of time?  Maybe having fun sounds silly or unproductive?  Here’s another question:  How do you have fun?  Creative projects, cooking, sports, dancing, travel?  Something I’ve learned for sure is that when I realize I’m not having fun I probably need to make a change.  At work, at home, in my relationships – it doesn’t matter.  Fun is passion.  Fun is my connection to my Self, it’s a nice reminder of who I am.  When I’m not connected to that part of myself, it shows.  So leaving fun out of my day, my week, or my life to be “productive” means I’m not showing up at my best, in fact I’m probably leaving out the best part of me. 

So where did we get the idea we had to be so serious?  Where did we get the idea that everything has to be so hard?  What if it isn’t true?  What if my path to feeling happy and fulfilled requires me to have fun?  Now that’s a conversation I want to be a part of.  Of course, I already know it is the truth, which is why I ask the question “are you having fun?”  If the answer is no, then I have an invitation.  During the whole month of July Elizabeth’s House is asking women to surrender to the fun of summer and to help you do that, we are hosting Summer Camp each Tuesday and Thursday.  We’re going to dance, sing, act, scrapbook, have tea parties, make jewelry, and more.  In other words, we’re going to play.  And while we’re “playing,” perhaps we’ll be reminded of what it feels like to be authentically us.  Smiling, joyful, laughing, sparkly us. 

This month I invite you to surrender to fun.  Make a point of it and observe the difference it makes in your life.  Take pictures and create an album of yourself having fun.  Start a fun journal and make a list of things you intend to do that are fun, and check them off when you do them.  By the end of the month I promise you one thing, your perspective is going to change, and that’s all we need to create more.

Peace,

Beth Collins, Founder and Director

Elizabeth's House, 419-356-5544 / elizabethshouse@bex.net

Letting Go by Jan Menzie

The older I get, the more I want to play with toys. I will be 61 late June, and no, I have not lost my mind…at least that I am aware of. And these toys have led me on a spiritual journey, one that I share indirectly with my students. I teach middle school which speaks to my sanity or lack thereof. I let my students know how much fun I have, how I love to play and how this is all part of life. I love to “go outside and play.”

Adult toys are a recent development in my life. I met my first exciting toy –a mountain bike- in my 40’s. When I was 46, my husband sent me to camp.  I had never been to camp. This was a women’s fitness camp held in Winter Park Colorado, a location that we love. He suggested that I might need to play. How right he was. There, my inner child came out that had been hidden for years. At camp, I learned to run mountain trails, and become part of a team of women.

There, I also met God on a personal level. Not where you might expect to have a spiritual awakening. All week, we had been learning to do something that I had not done since I was a kid. We learned to ride a bike. This was not your mother’s heavier than the lawn tractor bike. This was a lightweight mountain bike with multiple gears, and a front suspension and fancy brakes. And each team was expected to stay with the leaders on single-track mountain bike trails starting at 9200 ft. altitude and climbing to 12,000+ and then back down again. Twists and turns, up and down, and lungs heaving. Scary, and steep, rocky, and loose, mountain biking testing every sense. This I know does not sound like fun, and at first it was nothing but struggle. It was so much like my everyday life, pushing against a mountain. One of my teammates said something that changed my life and how I felt about the sport. She said, “ I have done this many times, and I have never seen a stronger biker than you. The problem is you ride that bike as though you are trying to control the mountain. You cannot control the mountain.  You look down and worry about every bump and root and think that you can control them. You are miserable on the ride. You are tense and tired in the end. You cannot control the mountain. What you need to do is look about ten to twenty feet ahead and trust the bike and your eyes. Let the bike take you.” She was right. I learned to surrender. I surrendered to the trail, the mountain, the bike, and to God. I let go. And as I let go, I loved it more and more, and got better at everything including biking. My entire life began to settle into the rhythms of ups and downs of everyday life, looking ahead and trusting God to help me pedal the bumps and holes and come out with a smile on my face wanting more. If I become distracted, I will crash. It is truly a religious experience.

I pray as I ride, or have imaginary conversations with God and with my students as I pedal, pedal, pedal around the trails. As time passes, I find more and more trails and have more and more fun. So are the paths of my faith.  It is one of the most fun things I do. And the older I get, the more of a kid I become. I remember that Jesus once said that our faith should be like that of a little child. Play a little.  Surrender and trust. Smile a lot. Laugh out loud.  Hoot and holler when you conquer the next hill. Anyone wanna come out and play? Let me know.