| Thursday, July 14, 2016 | | Play More | This is a great followup to my last blog, Making Time For Joy.
I named this one, Play More. It’s advice I’ve heard repeatedly over the years, from friends, blogs, FB posts, even in my quiet prayer times. My usual response has been, “Yes, but…”
Then follows a litany of excuses, time being the most frequent, and opportunity (which is just a fancier word for time in my vernacular) running a close second. Typing this I realize, I have never used lack of companions as an excuse. Growing up as an only child, I learned to play by myself early. Alone time, especially outside, tends to refresh me for all the interactions I love to have with people, whether at home with Pete or in our galleries or just out running errands, hoping my smile will bring a corresponding smile from a stranger.
But I heard myself telling the gals up at SeaDragon the other day, I think I have laughed more with all of you in the past four months than I have in the past four or five years all put together. Somehow I had let my life become very serious, for all my generally chipper personality and focus on gratitude. I may have been positive, but as serious business! Somehow I had let the pure fun factor slip.
I can trace back signposts over the past few years so I know how I got here. The more important question for me now is how do I shift this? The way I shift anything in my life is first by awareness. Now that I know I want to make a change, I can take some steps. Journaling helps, too – but it isn’t the whole answer with me. Neither is talking things out with others. All that just helps to confirm what I already know. The trick is changing behavior in order for my outlook to change. As is often the case, photography as a Practice helped point the way.
Years ago when we were still in the old yellow cottage we leased on the beach road, we had a family of foxes spend part of our final summer there with us. Watching the antics of the young foxes helped bring out a playful spirit in me, too. In between customers, I’d sit on our front steps and sketch, even blow bubbles in the breeze! Somehow when we left the cottage and those foxes, I left my playfulness behind.
Fast forward to this June and I received a tremendous gift from a fellow professional photographer who shared with me the location of a fox den she had discovered. Happily, I could arrange my schedule to visit the location several times on my way to work or after supper. Our foxes at Yellowhouse were gray foxes, and these were red foxes. Even that little distinction helped my heart heal, as I could give myself fully to reveling in watching them explore the big wide world they’d been born into. After two to three weeks, Mom and Dad moved the den. I’m grateful to have had several encounters, all of which refreshed my own playful sense of wonder. Here, for your delight, are some of those moments.
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click for larger image | Both parents help care for youngsters. Here, the Mama has foraged a piece of bread to bring back to the den. |
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click for larger image | Watching this little fox amuse itself--and learn important life skills--was, dare I say it, so much fun. |
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click for larger image | Since the babies typically sleep during the hottest part of the day, when they emerged, be it morning or evening, they did a lot of yawning and resting before playtime. |
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click for larger image | Of course, I could have chosen many more to share. But I will leave you with this one. I call it, Awwwwww. |
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posted by eturek at 1:35 PM |
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