The website Spirituality and Practice has wonderful information on the spiritual practice of play.  I recommend it for ideas and ways to work play into life in all seasons.  Here's the link:

Spiritual Practice of Play

Here's a hand-out of Mary Oliver's poem, "A Summer Day" for reflection and discussion. 

  Having Fun 

I just read Sue Czarnetzky's  story telling how she found herself cavorting in the cool drops of a sprinkler on a hot summer day in Washington, D.C.  (You can read the story here.)  She was a little chagrined at first, wondering what passersby and neighbors might think as she got wetter and wetter, but in the end she reveled in the childlike wonder she experienced in this out of the ordinary romp.

Her story brought back memories of my own childhood, where playing in the sprinkler was the only way to stay cool on hot summer days.  I also remembered the time my dad took my brother and me kite flying in the middle of a work day. That wasn't normal behavior for him, but he did it because the wind was perfect for getting a kite off the ground and up into the sky.  And her story brought back the memory of the time my brother and I played in mud puddles with great abandon--soaking our shoes and our clothes with muddy water--much to our mother's chagrin. 

When we get to be adults most of us become quite serious.  The responsibilities of job and family seem to rob us of the ability to engage in spontaneous and sometimes silly fun.  We are, after all, productive people with serious responsibilities.  We forget about playing in the sprinkler or making mud pies.  We aspire to the neat and orderly rather than random, fun messiness.

In so doing we miss the spirit-lifting opportunities that fun and play provide.  Working with older adults is a serious business and there are serious issues that we navigate with them each and every day.  We need to do that.  But I also think we need to allow space in our lives (and in theirs) for fun and play, for wonder and joy. 

Summer is a good time for fun, but so are the other seasons of the year.  How can we incorporate fun and play into our lives?  How can we encourage a sense of play in the older adults we serve?    

If you have ideas and experiences of incorporating fun and play into your work with older adults please share them with me here.  I'll pass them on in the next issue of SPIRIT.