Tidbits of Wisdom to inspire your unique life journey – Jeanne Loehnis, Songs For Your Spirit, LLC
Life regularly presents opportunities for learning, growing, expanding! Here you’ll find ideas, stories and inspiration from my life. As you read, be sure to consider the unique and amazing life that is yours. Only then, discern if this tidbit is for you!
Staring up at the clouds, I see blue sky and sunshine beyond the grey bumps that have taken over the scene. My first reaction is to wish the gray clouds away as they are blocking the perfection of the day. Yet I realize they are serving to keep the temperatures mild.
So I ask:
What clouds are present in your life?
What purpose do they serve?
Awhile back we started this journey. And I asked:
Are responsibility and playfulness mutually exclusive?
Four demons later, I am here to answer with a resounding, NO! I’ve had so much fun, been fully in a playful spirit, creating these blog posts for you just 72 hours after I DON’T WANT TO showed up.
What if we dared to play through life?
What if work was play?
What if our playful spirit did the work?
What if delight was the norm?
I believe the journey is all about reigniting our playful spirit, the one we were born with and which never leaves us. Truly, it only goes underground waiting for each opportunity to burst into laughter and joy, to giggle with delight, to be exposed to sunshine.
Will you play with me?
… loneliness. Yes, demon #4 on the road from responsibility to play (or, as you may have guessed, on the road from RESPONSIBILITY to playful responsibility and responsible playfulness) is loneliness.
Why? Because this road is taking us out of our comfort zones .. and … out of the comfort zone of others who expect us to be responsible. It is all too possible that others will be unable to support us on the journey, may fully abandon us, and certainly may not be ready to take the journey for themselves beside us. Sometimes when this happens, we feel lonely.
How do we deal with demon #4, loneliness?
Know that you you don’t have to be alone. Many others are on the journey – find them! Others want to be on the journey but are stuck in demon #3, fear. When you are ready, be a leader and encourage them to take a risk and join you! In the meantime, remember why you began this journey from responsibility to play.
What benefit will you receive from embracing play?
What if you don’t?
… FEAR. Daring to change, taking a risk and trying something new, letting go and playing when you used to do the responsible thing … this is bound to bring up some fear.
What will I miss out on?
What will you think of me?
What if I don’t know how to do this new thing playfully?
What if I look like a fool?
If you are on the road from responsibility to play and you manage to move through the fear and look like a fool, then I say , “HOORAY!” You have taken the responsibility of learning to play seriously …
Huh, really?
… from responsibility to play, that is. This is part two in a short series. While exploring play and having a playful spirit, I am being challenged in many ways. Today’s thought is this:
Demon #2: Discomfort
Shifting from “responsible” to “playful”, or better yet, from “responsible” to “playful in responsibility” is a journey. For some of us it can be a long, uncomfortable journey, especially if we’ve been groomed to achieve, do well, set aside playfulness and games and be responsible.
If this is you, then expect discomfort! For that matter, celebrate it! If you are daring to toy with playfulness and it doesn’t feel good, play on! You are courageous and definitely “on the road!”.