I’ve been thinking about fun lately.
Not vacations or big celebrations. Just ordinary fun. The kind that happens when someone suggests doing something a little different and you say yes.
As adults, we get very good at responsibility. We work, care for our homes, and manage schedules, relationships, finances, children, pets, aging parents, and everything else life asks of us. Even our free time can become surprisingly organized.
There is always something that needs to be done. But when did we decide that everything we do needs to accomplish something?
Recently, we’ve been enjoying some simple summer traditions. We brought out our outdoor movie theater again, spent time with friends and family, visited community events and farmers markets, and looked for reasons to be outside while the weather was inviting.
None of it was extraordinary. That’s part of what I liked about it. We enjoyed ourselves without making elaborate plans.
Still, it’s easy to postpone that kind of fun without realizing it.
We’ll invite people over when the house is finished. We’ll try the class when we have more time. We’ll explore our own community someday.
And someday can become a very long time.
I’ve also been thinking about how much fun it can be to do something we’re not good at. We spend so much of our professional lives trying to be capable and prepared. Trying something new gives us a chance to be beginners again.
Maybe you paint something that looks nothing like the picture. Maybe your first attempt at gardening produces exactly three tomatoes. Maybe you take a class and spend half of it trying to figure out what’s happening.
You laugh. You learn something. You have a story to tell. Nobody is evaluating your performance.
When was the last time you let yourself do something like that?
Of course, life isn’t always fun. Some seasons are demanding, painful, complicated, or exhausting. Those may be the times when a small moment of enjoyment means the most.
It could be as simple as eating outside, calling a friend, or going somewhere you’ve driven past a hundred times. It could be trying something you’ve never done, even if you turn out to be terrible at it.
What would give you something to look forward to this week?
There is more to a full life than being productive. Sometimes it’s enough to have enjoyed the day.