How about your Realm? All of our Realms are under siege! What happened to our JOY! What happened to Seizing Life! Joie de Vivre! Carpe Diem and all that!

My fortress in under attack! The weather buffets the walls threatening to blow in the weak spots. Lightning flashes. The bills fly in through any openings. Repairs threaten to unbalance an already stretched budget. A job doesn’t come through creating tension and infighting within the walls. Outside the walls the office bullies do their best to keep Milly and her crew off kilter. It’s a battle of epic proportions…And that’s only the overview!

I started thinking about “Play” again. I had it in my proverbial hand. It was there and then it was gone. It’s been a tough couple of weeks (see the last couple of posts…I don’t want to think about it right now). I learned sometimes you gotta work at play! Imagine that!

I also learned it can be hard to keep the playful attitude to make life better. I actually had people push back. Like the bully on the playground. Granted there wasn’t an actual shove in the shoulder. I wasn’t knocked to the ground. We adults have more finesse. Hah! The words still wound taking me back a step. Seriously? Snubbing people? I can’t believe we “adults” act like this. Really! Well! I think I will push back too! I will be cheerful and I will enjoy what I do! So there!

And on and on it goes…It’s funny my boys and I have talked about this for years. They started to notice this phenomenon as pre-teens. We’d be out together and see so-called adults melt down, be rude, or generally unkind. The first thing out of one of their mouths (or both at the same time) would be “You would never let us act like THAT!”

I told them they were right I wouldn’t. I also told them I was proud of them because they were better behaved than the adults. I took wicked satisfaction in the glares I got when said adults overheard our conversations. As I’ve said before, there is no topic that is sacred in Milly’s Realm. They all must be discussed and dissected. Of course if they get to gross, I have the right as mom to leave the room! I digress…

Back to viewing life as play, imagine a big fabulous playroom. It includes all the things as kids we liked to play (pretend). There’s a kitchen in the playhouse with chairs and a table. There’s a place to “work” and a jail. There’s a store and a bank…You get the idea. I have all those things in my town and some in my home. Like the table and chairs! Oh I am blessed enough to have a kitchen too!

So driving home tonight, while dodging the “Tetris with cars” players, I practically begged my husband to go to the market and pick up dinner. With his agreement, I drove in a state of relief. Just writing this I realized, dinner is an opportunity to play. I get to decide what we eat. I get to create a dinner. I get to chow down. Wow opportunity missed. Now the noodle bowl with Korean-style beef was wonderful BTW. Being served is wonderful too but…If I was a kid I would not have missed the opportunity to get my hands in there and gotten them dirty!

It’s hard to focus on enjoying the little joys in life. We have too much on our shoulders and bad stuff happens. Getting my mindset back to play does help. It reminds me to not take life so seriously, and chose to laugh (even sarcastic laughter is good for you). I need to focus on the joy in what I am doing right now this minute (I’m writing! One of my favorite things to do! Stories real or imagined are so much fun!).

So tonight my eldest son goes out to check out a class at a local gym. He hits a pothole which bends the rim on one of his tires. Then he’s heating a snack in the toaster oven and burns his finger. I’m thinking, Typical. Bad things come in threes. I say “Uh Oh.”

“What?” he asks.

“My Grandma always said things come in threes.”

He collects his snack and waves me off. “I couldn’t check out the class either. See three bad things. I’m good for tonight!” he gives me the thumbs up with a grin then adds “At least for tonight.”

I say “And that comes from a Grandma! You have to believe a Grandma! Not a Mom but a Grandma.”

He smiles. “Definitely believe the Grandma.”

There goes my millennials again. They are living in the moment and taking life as it comes. Maybe just maybe I’ll learn from them. PLAY with your life!

Milly