A-Playful-Path_DeKoven-web

Being playful
You don’t have to play to be playful. You don’t need toys or games or costumes or joke books.
But you do have to be open, vulnerable, you do have to let go.
Playfulness is all about being vulnerable, responsive, yielding to the moment. You might not
be playing, but you are willing to play, at the drop of a hat, the bounce of a ball, the glance
of a toddler, the wag of a tail. You are open to any opportunity. You are loose. Responsive.
Present.
You have to be present to enjoy the sunrise, to delight in the light of your child’s delight, because
otherwise you simply aren’t there to catch it. It goes by you as if it and you aren’t even
there.
Playfulness means presence, but not just presence. Responsiveness, but not just responsiveness.
Presence and responsiveness, lightness and attentiveness, improvisation and creativity, a
willingness to let go and become part.
There’s nothing hard about being playful. The hard thing is let your self out to play so that
you have that choice, the hard thing is recognizing the opportunity, the brave thing is accepting
the invitation.
Why do you stay inside? Why do you fail to go out and meet the opportunity? Why does it
sometimes seem so hard to accept the invitation? Watch the news. Listen to the news. Read
the news. Walk in the crowds. Go to school. Go to work. Look around. Look at the faces
surrounding you. Think about cracking a joke, a smile, even. Think about cracking the barriers
that separate you, define you. Think about how important it seems for you to be taken
seriously, to appear in control, always in control, everywhere in control.
When you are playful, you let go of all that. You are not even thinking about being in control
or controlling anyone else. You’re thinking about fun. And if you see the opportunity, you
take it. If you see possibility, you acknowledge it.
When you are feeling playful, it doesn’t seem particularly brave to come out and play, to
invite someone to play with you, even at the office, even with a stranger. When you’re not
feeling playful, it seems foreboding, forbidden, wrong, dangerous, even. You risk being
laughed at, made to feel foolish, seeming disrespectful, childish, crazy. And to act playfully, to
be playful, given all that, is exactly that: brave.
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