What moves you? What makes you feel alive? What are you passionate about? Hopefully these are easy questions for you to answer.
I am moved when I see other people being happy and joyful. It makes me happy to see their happiness on display. Being a grandfather four times over now I have been finding myself coming full circle.
Life was mostly all about me until I became a husband 39 years ago. I then discovered I had the responsibility of insuring that my wife was happy (happy wife happy life)as well as our three children. Now my wife and I find ourselves in the position of doing the exact same thing for our grandchildren. It does appear that an atmosphere of happiness is much easier to attain with grandchildren than with your own children! I’m sure all the grandparents out there would agree with that statement. Obviously the responsibilities of parents are on a different level than grandparents. Parents have the responsibility of raising their children to be disciplined, mannerly, loving, kind & obedient. Ce rtainly grandparents do their part to help in these areas of important character traits. But sometimes grandparents try to keep the peace and give the grandkids liberties parents wouldn’t ordinarily give!
It doesn’t matter if you wear the hat of parent or grandparent. We should be creating a positive atmosphere that makes children feel happy to be alive! For the most part happiness comes easily to children. Why is that you might ask? Because children play! And they usually play a lot! Play Time for children is a happy place for them. Quite frankly that should apply for adults as well as children. No matter how old we get we should always make time to play. Take away play time and see how quickly that happy face turns into an upside down smile.
Responsibilities tend to get in the way of our play time. However there should be comfort found in knowing that when responsibilities are finished play time awaits us. Of course it’s not always that easy to switch work hat for play hat. In todays busy world adults are very often overworked and overwhelmed with responsibilities. Sometimes physically and emotionally exhausted as well. Truthfully we often don’t always feel like doing much more than going straight to the couch after work is done.
I can remember many a busy day that was finished at the softball fields. Many a weeknight Summer evening was spent water skiing until very last light. Spring time is usually the best time of year to wet a fishing line and actually catch fish. These are some of my passions that bring lots of joy to my heart and make me very happy. Just simply having a lot of fun. A lot of times I didn’t feel like I had the energy to even pursue those activities. But I knew that the reward of the fun that would be had was well worth the effort! After all very often in life we don’t feel up to doing certain things sometimes. But once we commit we find that we’re glad that we did.
Life wasn’t meant to be all work and no play. Rediscover your inner child and get outside and do something fun. I swung a pretty hot Softball Bat for almost 40 years. I finally wore my favorite softball glove out running down fly balls in the outfield. Now at age 62 I am in my second season of senior league baseball. Same rules as Major League Baseball. Nothing’s quite like th e feel of a solid connection on a real wood bat. I spend most games behind home plate in full catchers gear. Hockey style facemask, chest protector, shinguards, trusty Jockstrap with a cup and dependable catchers mitt. I am in my happy place on a field of dreams.
Perhaps you have water skis collecting dust somewhere. While water skiing is still an awesome activity it has fallen off in popularity a little bit. Wake surfing has become the latest rage in water sports. It’s much easier on the body and tons of fun. of course these activities require the use of a ski boat or a wake surfing boat, which might be cost prohibitive for some.
A fishing adventure that actually involves “catching” fish is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Dig out that fishing rod & reel and put it to good use. There’s almost always a body of water within a short driving distance of where you’re located.
Here’s the bottom line. Whether indoors or out, get moving and have some fun! Rediscover what moves you and makes you feel alive and get up and do it. There is a world of adventure, waiting to bring joy to your life. Don’t let anything hold you back from living your life to the fullest. Remind yourself what you once were passionate about! Have some fun …and be happy!
