It is another beautiful sunny morning in Gothenburg. The sun just came out a minute ago. I think it’s just for you, so you get to see it. It’s fabulous, there’s a lot of wind going on as well, as you may hear in the trees behind me. I just moved into a different part of the city, and it’s gorgeous over here. Luckily I found a lovely green spot for you to, you know, share, with some graffiti, and here we are.
New month, August, it’s the month of play I’ve decided. Welcome to the month of play – and what does that mean? What does to play mean? I love being playful – not as in playing with people – being playful with myself, being playful in my interactions, bringing some joy and lightness into things, and just really enjoying the moment.
A big part of me enjoying the moment, adventuring – love the adventures – includes creating my own adventures, and making sure that there is actually enough adventure happening. That may seem like a slight contrast to the “go with the flow”. There is a lot of joy and adventure to be found in the moment, and we are very diligent about scheduling work things. How about we also schedule some adventure time? Just to make sure that it happens, because it matters to us. I don’t mean to speak for you. It matters to me to have some adventure time, to just let things happen, to go out explore, to be in nature, to meet new people, to see different places, to experience different things.
Right now, a lot continues to shift in the world, and so the adventure planning may have become different from what it used to be. Maybe the types of adventures are different, and that’s okay. I went hiking last week and it was beautiful. Being out in nature is still good, whether that’s a neighborhood walk, or whether that’s further away. What animals do you get to see? What plants have you found? What is something that you’ve never seen before? What do you see in the clouds?
What adventure is calling to you today? What is it that makes you come alive? I know you’ve heard that question of me before. I’ll propose it again because I think it merits to ask it every single day. What makes you come alive?
For me, today, that was taking a walk around my new neighborhood, and discovering this cute little Italian café named Biscotti, and enjoying a little americano and a little breakfast. It was delightful – and getting up doing my meditation practice. It feels like meditation is an adventure in itself every single time. You don’t move, yet there is so much happening.
So, there is daily adventuring, and there is other intervals for adventuring – maybe there’s weekly, maybe there’s monthly, quarterly, yearly.
Jamie Wheal calls this “hedonic calendaring”, to say “we’re going to put some adventures on the schedule” such that we’re going to make sure that we do the things that make us come alive. Because I can know that hiking out in nature makes me come alive. It doesn’t help much if I don’t go do it, so for that committing to a time is gold. Seems like a pretty simple point and as with quite a few ones before, simple doesn’t always mean easy. Because there’s a lot of other things that you have in your life as well, so what matters the most is: what’s your priority?
What is it that you want your life to be about?
What are the experiences you choose? What are the adventures you choose? What’s next?
I’m going sailing this week, and am very excited about it – being out on the water.
Yes, that’s a big privilege, to meet some new people, and then be able to come along for a little ride out there, I understand that.
And I very much enjoy every moment of it, and really, really appreciate it. Who knows if I ever get to do that again? Who knows if I’m still around in a week or two?
I asked somebody yesterday what they would do with their very last day if they knew they had one more day. They gave me a beautiful answer with the things that they wanted to do, and then followed up with the comment that that was kind of a harsh presumption. I said, well maybe, maybe it’s not harsh at all, maybe it makes us value more the time that we have – to know that, hey, who knows when it’s the last one? Can we just fully appreciate the wind in our hair, the daylight on our face, the next breath we get to take?
And can we be more playful with life? Can we see challenges as opportunities to grow, and this opportunity is to try something new? And to experience something new? It’s a tall order, yeah, maybe, but that’s what you came here for, right? To expand, to find a big adventure, whatever that adventure looks like for you. There’s no prescription – you get to choose. You get to choose. So how are you choosing to play today?
If you want to join me for some play time at the end of August, we’re doing an in-person retreat – fingers crossed – with a small group of people.
And I would love to see you there for some bliss practice.
Either way, stay tuned, let me know if this served you. I send you so much love. Have a beautiful rest of your day and week!
And go play, go play – what makes you come alive? I love you.